Not previously mentioned within our website was the visit on Monday 18th May 2015, by four team members to Belmont Primary School, Ryecroft Lane, Belmont village in the heart of the West Pennine Moors, to give a presentation to the young pupils on the work of the team.

There follows an account of this visit by our Team Equipment Officer – Water Dave Cook;

“Today team members Martin Battersby, Equipment Officer – Water Dave Cook, David Crawford and John Dickinson visited Belmont Primary School to present the pupils with a “Mountain Rescue Activity Afternoon”

Belmont sits in the heart of the team’s operational area, at the foot of Winter Hill, so the visit gave the team an opportunity in educating the children in the work of Bolton MRT.

Arriving at 12:45pm in our Land Rover radio call sign “Bolton Mobile 1” from Bolton North Fire Station, our team members were met by Deputy Head Teacher Mr. Lane and kindly provided with tea and coffee which was gratefully received

After a brief introduction from Mr. Lane the four classes (years 3, 4, 5 and 6) were split into three groups and onto the first part of the afternoon which was a series of three “Skill Stations”

At Station One were team members Martin Battersby and John Dickinson demonstrating the use of our vacuum leg and arm splints, along with our vacuum mattress.

Several pupils found themselves completely immobilised which was thoroughly enjoyed by their fellow classmates

Station Two was Resuscitation and CPR with team member David Crawford on hand teaching the techniques of how to save a life. The teams CPR training mannequins were employed with the pupils and staff taking away a very useful life skill

The untidy Station Three was a thorough look at the equipment carried by Bolton MRT members – with team member Dave Cook completely emptying the extensive contents of his rucksack on to the hall floor, along with a look through our trauma kit

After a short break and it was on to the second part of the afternoon, which was a small mock rescue exercise emulating a typical call out of the team. Head Teacher Mrs. Peel kindly “volunteered” to be the exercise casualty with pretend injuries of a broken arm and leg with back pain. Year 6 pupils were divided into 3 Search Parties to comb the school grounds looking for the exercise casualty site. A quick find in the playground followed with the search party reporting back to “control” – in which they correctly stated all the requirements for Mrs. Peel and that also they had also found another exercise casualty in one of our CPR mannequins

From this the whole Junior section of the school was mobilised to the casualty sites.
Constant CPR was carried out on the mannequin whilst Mrs. Peel was placed into vacuum splintage and then into our vacuum mattress.

To say the area was busy is an understatement.

The stretcher evacuation commenced soon after with our exercise casualty being lifted onto one of our SAR Alpine Lite mountain rescue stretchers.

Several laps of the playground were covered with all the children taking a turn carrying the stretcher.

Mrs. Peel was then carefully lowered to the ground and the four Bolton MRT team members took over and demonstrated what happens should a casualty feel nauseous or vomit during a carry. This entailed the stretcher being tipped upside down to big laughs and cheers from the children

Time for home came all to soon with the Infants section of the school joining us and all having a sit in our Land Rover with the ever popular “blues and twos” in action

Martin, Dave, David and John would like to thank the pupils of Belmont School for their exceptionally good behaviour and interest in Bolton MRT, and to wish them good luck in their forthcoming sponsored walk on June 7th 2015, at which we will have our usual supportive presence.”