This afternoon, our Team President Bob Hutchinson, visited the members of Longsight Women’s Institute at their Harwood Methodist Hall meeting venue, Longsight Lane, Harwood, Bolton.

Bob attended in our BM3 Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicle, radio callsign Bolton Mobile 3.

On arrival at the venue I was introduced to my contact, Committee member Mrs Eileen Hardy, President Mrs Francis Carney and Secretary Mrs Elaine Mason. After singing the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ to open the meeting there was a short business meeting before I was introduced to the audience of what must have been in excess of 40 ladies. I was struggling with a sore throat and in imminent danger of losing my voice but a glass of water and the offer of a Fisherman’s Friend saw me through.

I gave spoke about the origins of MR in the UK and the formation of rescue teams in Lancashire before describing the foundation and early days of BMRT. At the end there were lots of questions from the audience before President Mrs Francis Carney presented me with a cheque for the the magnificent sum of £200. It seems we had been chosen as one of the group’s charities for 2013/14 so it was a lovely surprise on the day to receive the money completely out of the blue. The whole Team wishes to thank the ladies of Longsight W.I. for their kind generosity and for choosing Bolton MRT as a charity to support.