Whilst in the teams area, this warm and sunny afternoon, parked up at Lower House Car Park, Rivington, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE and colleague team member Steve Fletcher, in our Incident Control Vehicle BM6, was approached by a father and his young son at circa 16.00hrs asking whether we had keys to a nearby locked gate giving access to the hillside Terraced Gardens, Rivington.

The man explained his dog had jumped over the side wall of ‘Seven Arch Bridge’ in the Terraced Gardens, and fallen vertically some twenty feet, sustaining injuries to its left side and flanks and possible leg fractures.

Using our access keys, the man in his 4WD vehicle with Steve Fletcher with him, drove up the hillside track, meeting up with his wife and daughter who had stayed with their injured pet dog, alongside their other pet dog.

Steve decided in view of the dogs injuries, an 8 month old, Black Labrador Bitch, called Bramble, it would be smoother to stretcher evacuate the dog back down the stone surfaced and potholed track, than drive it down.

Our Land Rover BM2 with Mike O’Brien, and Land Rover BM3 with Mike Marsh and Ged Clarke, then also arrived to assist.

Bramble was placed on to one of our casualty lifting sheets, and then carried back down the rough hillside track, on one of our SAR Alpine Lite Mountain Rescue Stretchers.

Here Bramble, at 16.40hrs was transferred in to the families vehicle, from where they they set off to an emergency veterinary practice near their Rufford, Merseyside home.