This report was written by team member Diane Blakeley
I am a teacher at Wellfield Business & Enterprise College in Leyland. The college is very supportive of my work with Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, allowing on a number of occasions me to attend call outs, whilst my students are always interested to hear about my latest “rescue”. So it was with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to welcome 13 students from Years 7, 8 and 9, along with Assistant Head Teacher Abigale Bowe, Head of Student Support and Year 7 Bev Yates and Attendance Officer Suzanne Evans and her son Oliver down to see some of the work we do at our Ladybridge Headquarters.
Helping me out for the day were Team President Bob Hutchinson, Training Officer Elaine Gilliland, Team Member Sam McKay and her daughter Mollie, Trainee Team Members Paul Copley and Tony Dawson. We greeted the students and staff who first watched a Mountain Rescue video, before I gave a talk about the work the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team does.
During the summer school the students have been split into three groups Lions, Tigers and Leopards, so the students stayed in these small groups to learn more about the team and try some practical activities. The Tigers started with Sam and Tony learning more about First Aid and some of the specialist equipment we use including the defribulator, neck collars, pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor. The Lions went first to Elaine and Paul where they learnt how to use the vacuum splits, load a casualty onto a stretcher and then carry the stretcher. The Leopards started with Bob learning all about the land Rovers, the equipment they carry before each student had a go on the radio by checking radio signals with me who was in control. Each group swapped round to try all the activities before the students had their lunch sat on the grass in the sunshine. There was no break for the team members as we repacked the motors ready for the afternoon activity.
We all headed out to Lower House car park, Rivington, where Bev and Mollie headed off to be exercise casualties for the students. Before too long we got a call to say that they needed rescuing and we all headed out onto the hill. The students carrying the equipment and tasked with various roles. When we arrived Sopie Eddision when straight into the role of First Aider where she did a fantastic job looking after teacher Bev Yates who used her acting skills to the full pretending to have an asthma attack. Sophie clearly should consider the nursing or caring profession as she was outstanding at looking after Bev who definitely should be nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Meanwhile Sam’s daughter 8 year old Mollie also needed rescuing. Before too long the students confirmed she had a broken leg and would need carrying off the hill, so whilst some students looked after Mollie using one of the vacuum splints on her broken leg, other students got the stretcher ready. Year 7 student Tara, meanwhile showed excellent radio skills keeping Bob who was in Control advised of the exercise casualties status. Before too long the students had Mollie on the stretcher and commenced the carryoff down the hill, taking it in to carry the stretcher.
The day ended with a group photo with one of the teams emergency landrovers. The team received a donation of £30 for some team wristbands. On a personnel note I would like to thank my rescue team colleagues for all their help and enthusiasm with my students. The staff from Wellfield particularly commented how nice and caring our team members had been with the students and sent their thanks to all the team members who were involved as the students had had a great day with 100% of students saying that they had learnt something interesting during the day.
Once back at base we all chilled out with a cake and a cuppa, but before we had chance to leave the base, the pagers went off for incident 47 (see above).
