This evening the team was paged at 19.45hrs by NWAS (Lancashire) regards an accident on the moors involving a 51 year old female horse rider who had fallen from her mount, sustaining injuries.

Shortly afterwards a full team pager call out message alerted the entire membership to the vicinity of the incident location.

The horse rider involved had been out riding in the company of a friend from the nearby yard, when she fell from her horse, on the lower eastern slopes of Turton Heights, just above the track to Clough House Farm off the B6391 Greens Arms Road.

Around 20.15hrs our first team members (John Dickinson, Neil Warburton and our Deputy Leader Geoff Seddon) arrived on scene to meet the responding NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance crew (From Rossendale Ambulance Station) and a solo crewed NWAS (Lancashire) Rapid Response Vehicle from Blackburn.

The injured woman, who is from the Bolton area, sustained a suspected fractured femur, and was treated on scene with powerful pain killing drugs and gas.

One feature of this incident was the unseasonal low temperature, made worse by a very strong wind.

By 20.23hrs our first team vehicle arrived on scene, our BM6, followed by two further team vehicles at 20.30 / 20.31hrs respectively.

The injured woman was partly evacuated from the moorland hillside, firstly on an NWAS Long board, and then on a Bell Mountain Rescue Stretcher, to the B6391 Greens Arms Road, where she was put into the NWAS Emergency Ambulance at 20.47hrs, which then departed shortly afterwards for Royal Bolton Hospital.

In total twenty one Bolton MRT members were involved on scene with this incident, a further three Bolton MRT members were stood down responding.

Three team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles responded, alongside NWAS (Lancashire) resources.