At 17.25hrs this sunny but cold early evening, we were paged by NWAS (Greater Manchester) Parkway EOC requesting the team’s assistance with an incident in the Hag Fold area of Atherton.

The call was answered by Team Call Out Contact Steve Fletcher, who alongside our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, was at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ at the time of the pager call, both working on the content and updates of our new look website.

The initial information concerned the reports of a collapsed male in woodland, with the NWAS crew on scene having requested the services of the team to assist with the evacuation that would be required.

A full team pager call out message was sent at 17.33hrs, with our first Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance (Call sign BM2) departing our GMFRS Bolton Central Fire Station garage at 17.35hrs.

17.36hrs saw our BM1 Land Rover departing our GMFRS Bolton North Fire Station garage location for the incident location, followed at 17.38hrs by Land Rovers BM3, and 17.42 by BM4 from our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

At 17.49hrs our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon arrived at the Spa Road, Hag Fold, Atherton, RVP where the NWAS Emergency Ambulance was parked up, closely followed by other early arriving team members and our BM2 vehicle.

It was established that a 45 year old local man had gone for a walk in the New Park Wood area, had collapsed at some stage, and had been found by a concerned family member who in turn contacted the Ambulance Service.  

By 17.55hrs our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon was at the casualty site, liaising with the on scene NWAS crew, whilst other arriving team members departed the RVP with the required equipment, being kindly led to the casualty site by the collapsed man’s mother.

The collapsed male – suffering from a suspected medical condition – was assessed and treated by the NWAS crew, the man having collapsed on a small track within the dense vegetation and bramble thickets of New Park Wood.

He was evacuated out of the wood, on a specialist ‘Bell’ Mountain Rescue Stretcher, arriving at the NWAS Emergency Ambulance at 18.22hrs, where his partner was waiting and kindly expressed her sincere thanks to the team members and NWAS crew for their actions. (As had the man’s mother)

Shortly afterwards the Ambulance departed for Royal Bolton Hospital, with all team members and team vehicles departing at circa 18.35hrs.

The following resources were involved in this incident

• NWAS (Greater Manchester)
  • EOC Parkway
  • Emergency Ambulance and two crew from Atherton Ambulance Station.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team
  • Four Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances
  • 26x Team Call Out list members on scene, of which 24x were involved in the stretcher carry operating in ‘carrying’ relays
  • a further 4x team members were stood down responding.