This hot and very sunny evening at 20.31hrs we were paged by  NWAS (Manchester) Parkway EOC to assist at an incident on a footpath off Tonge Moor Road, Bolton, giving access to Longsight Park.

Help was required by the on scene NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew, to stretcher evacuate a collapsed 19 years old male with a potentially serious head injury, back along the steep and narrow footpath to their waiting Ambulance on Tonge Moor Road.

After contacting and liaising with NWAS EOC, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE put out a full team pager call out was made at 20.43hrs, with our first of two responding Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances which responded, going mobile form our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ at 20.45hrs.

Whilst mobilising to collect our GMFRS Bolton North Community Fire Station garaged Land Rover call sign ‘Bolton Mobile 1,’ team members Diane Blakeley and Ged Clarke passed the parked up NWAS Ambulance, and so Diane stayed becoming our first member on scene at 20.48hrs, whilst Ged Clarke continued to collect our Land Rover from the nearby Fire Station,  – arriving on scene at 20.54hrs,  two minutes after our first arriving Land Rover on scene at 20.52hrs.

By 21.06hrs, following initial on scene treatment by the NWAS crew, the injured and cold man, had been placed on to a scoop stretcher and then on to one of our specialist mountain rescue stretchers, for a short but steep stretcher evacuation up a very narrow, damp and slippy footpath.

By 21.28hrs the NWAS Emergency Ambulance then departed for Royal Bolton Hospital.

Our Land Rover ‘Bolton Mobile 3’ then transported two close family members of the injured male, who lived close by, to hospital.

The following resources were involved in this incident;

• NWAS (Manchester) Parkway EOC.
• NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance and two crew from Atherton Ambulance Station.
• Greater Manchester Police Control Room and one Officer on scene (Astley Bridge Police station based)
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Two team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, eleven team call out list members on scene, Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh co-ordinating some communications from his home address, and a further five team call out list members stood down responding.

We would like to thank nearby residents for their understanding whilst we carried out this incident, and Bowland Pennine MRT for allowing us to utilise their Winter Hill Repeater radio channel during the initial response part of this incident.

As team members were departing for home locations after this incident we were paged for another incident this evening, this time by NWAS (Lancashire) Broughton EOC.