This morning at 09.00hrs team members gathered at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ to collect vehicles and journey on to this year’s Darwen 2015 Town Centre 999 Day.

We had on display all four of our Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances, our Ford Transit Crewbus / Ambulance and our Incident Control Vehicle, alongside a display of some of our comprehensive search and rescue equipment.

Opening at 10.00hrs, the event was a great success, all down to the organisers Lancashire Constabulary PCSOs Nicholas Gisicz and his colleague Mark Evans.

LFRS Darwen Fire Station had on display both of their Pump Appliances, whilst Lancashire Constabulary had a Divisional Patrol Car on display.

A fun element was provided by the young Lancashire Constabulary Volunteer Police Cadets, very smartly attired in their uniforms, with a Sumo Wrestling stand!

Also present was a display by the Rosemere Cancer Foundation Charity.

Besides our vehicle and kit displays, we also had much interest in our hands on ‘try it yourself’ CPR demonstrations.

Thanks to the fantastic kindness and generosity of the good townsfolk of Darwen and surrounding areas, we raised £148.78p in kind donations, arising from our cake sales, guess the dogs name competition – won by Jo who lives in Horwich (we’ll be in touch), who correctly guessed the name of the dog as ‘Jack’, and very appreciated coins and quite a few notes put in to our collecting buckets.

It was very nice to receive so many kind comments about the work we do in the local community, including quite a few from members of the public who knew some of the persons involved in our many incidents.

Thanks are expressed from the thirteen team call out / operational members present and Support Group members Gillian Gregory, Dave Rees, Laura Tunnicliffe and Sarah Hindle, for the pies, pasties and cakes supplied freely by a kind benefactor to all exhibitors today.

Links were re-forged with our colleagues at LFRS Darwen Fire Station, with their kind invite to Darwen Fire Station Open Day of Saturday 19th September 2015 accepted.

Gary Melia and Martin Battersby having a go at Sumo wrestling