Today the team provided standby rescue cover for the David Staff Memorial Charity Fell Race.

This fell race takes in a course over 6.6 km including 366m of ascent, centred on Jubilee Tower, Darwen and Darwen Moor.

The course this year followed last year’s route, which differs slightly from earlier routes.

The race this year was ably organised by Leanne Postlethwaite taking over from the organiser of previous years, fellow colleague Jonathan Stubbs of the Darwen Dashers Running Club (who are long time friends and supporters of the team) and has an important aim in raising money for the children’s cardiac charity C.R.Y. (Cardiac Risk in the Young)

It was back in December 1994, that David Staff, who first joined the Darwen Dashers aged 15, took part in his first senior race aged just 17, and sadly collapsed and died whilst competing in the Clitheroe 10K – his first race as a senior runner.

He died from a condition known as Adult Sudden Death Syndrome, a condition that claims the lives of at least eight youngsters a week, many of them active young athletes, and the run is now made in his memory.

Today 128 runners took place in the race starting at 11.30hrs, with two ‘sweepers’ bringing up the rear of the race.

With already completely sodden conditions underfoot, Storm Clodagh added its full might to the event, with winds gusting at over 50 mph and rain, which mercifully held off turning in to torrential downpours until the actual race finish.

In these terrible weather conditions it is all credit to the runners that every one of the 128 entrants completed the event, thankfully without injury or incident.

In total all six of our Team Vehicles were present today crewed by twenty three on hand Call Out list members, providing ‘spot pick up crews,’ and maintaining an MRT presence alongside Race Marshalls at some of the various check points around the route, including a very windswept Darwen tower area.

Team member Mark Scott acted as our Race Start and Finish liaison Officer, with our attendance being co-ordinated via our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, sited in our Incident Control Vehicle based for the event at Roddlesworth Information Centre.

This is the last Standby Rescue Cover event for us this year, the team having attended seventeen such events in 2015.