Member Article

High Sheriff praises heroes of the York floods

The High Sheriff of North Yorkshire, Charlie Forbes Adam, has visited Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team at their base near Great Ayton to say thank you for their work during the York floods.

The High Sheriff was shown the equipment that the volunteer rescue team carried and learned about how the team operated.

He explained: “My visit was to recognize the work that members of Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team did in helping people trapped by the flooding in York at the end of December last year and to present a well-deserved High Sheriff Award to the Team.

“They do fantastic work, completely on a voluntary basis, not only saving lives in the Cleveland Hills, but also assisting with the rescue effort during the York floods at Christmas time.

“Furthermore, operational costs, including the renewal and improvement of vehicles and equipment, are completely funded through private fundraising by the volunteers themselves. They are on call all year round and are absolute heroes,” said Mr Forbes Adam.

As well as presenting the Rescue Team with the High Sheriff’s Award, Mr Forbes Adam made a donation of £500 from the High Sheriff’s Fund.

The Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team is a voluntary group of about 50 men and women who are on call 24 hours a day to go to the help of people lost or injured on the North York Moors.

Last year the Team was called out 42 times with incidents ranging walkers with broken legs and crashed mountain bikers to lost walkers and missing vulnerable people.

Members of the Team are highly trained, their skills include advanced first aid, off-road driving, radio communications, navigation, search techniques and crag rescues to name but a few. Members of the Team are unpaid for their services and the Team has to raise the £25,000 annual running costs itself by various charitable means.

So far in 2016 there have been six incidents.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .