At 17:05 this very warm evening, the team was paged by NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre who were requesting our assistance at an incident on the disused Bolton & Bury section of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal at Little Lever.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was coincidentally visiting the NWAA Helimed 72 Air Ambulance at its Barton airport base at the time and quickly found out that the NWAA Helimed 08 Air Ambulance from Blackpool was being dispatched to this same incident.

Following our Team Leader’s liaison with NWAS Manchester ECC, a full team pager callout was sent at 17:13, by which time a number of personnel were responding to our Ladybridge Hall and Bolton Fire Station garage locations to collect vehicles.

Our first Land Rover went mobile at 17:23 with out Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon arriving first on scene at 17:30.

Initially the RVP had been given as the Hall Lane junction with the Bolton and Bury canal section, but our DTL Geoff Seddon quickly established from a member of the public that the RVP was actually at the end Boscow Rd/Prestolee Rd at Little Lever at it was to this point that all responding members and the ambulance gathered.

The incident involved an 83 year old male who had set out on a walk in the company of his son from Moses Gate Country Park. As they reached the canal, the father complained of shortness of breath, and given his previous medical history, a 999 call was quite rightly made.

When our Team members arrived at the casualty site, an NWAS ambulance crew had already treated the man (from the Deane area of Bolton) and he was evacuated to the NWAS ambulance at Boscow Rd/Prestolee Rd on one of our Mountain Rescue stretchers.

The evacuation was complete by 18:00, with the man involved being taken by ambulance to Royal Bolton Hospital.

The following resources were involved in this incident:

• NWAS Manchester ECC, who gave valuable advice regarding the exact location of the casualty.
• NWAS Manchester Emergency Ambulance from Swinton Ambulance Station
• Bolton MRT, three Land Rover Mountain Rescue ambulances, 14 members on scene, with a further 12 additional members stood down responding
• NWAA Helimed 08, Blackpool Airport, stood down responding

The team would like to express its thanks to the many residents at the bottom end of Boscow Rd/Prestolee Rd for their understanding whilst our team vehicles and responding team members vehicles effectively blocked their drives on the narrow road for the duration of this incident!