Following a GMP Twitter alert, regarding a missing Atherton man, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE made contact at 18.22hrs with the GMP Force Duty Officer and then a GMP Missing Person Search Manager.

The 80 years old man who had been missing since the morning of today, was last seen in the Leigh area, and with nightfall approaching, concern given his age and condition, was mounting.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was requested to attend GMP Leigh Police Station to meet with the responding GMP Missing Person Search Manager to formulate a search strategy and search plan.

At 18.49hrs the team was paged to standby status, with five team members assembling at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ in case of immediate need.

In the interim, details of the missing man were also paged out to all our members, given that some of our membership lives in the area where the man was missing from.

Two team members, Mike O’Brien and Louise Jorgensen, along with Louise’s husband Paul, a former long serving Bolton MRT member, changed their plan for a social bike ride in the same area as the missing man, to that of a search of local tracks and bridleways.

At circa 19.36 hrs with our Team Leader was informed that the missing man had been located in the vicinity of stables on Slag Lane, north of Lowton, and at 19.41hrs the team was stood down by pager.