New operations centre project update

 

·        Final hurdle in sight after 10 year struggle

·        New building ‘fits the bill’

·        Location will reduce response times and save lives

·        Fit out plans at advanced stage

 Can you help the people of Lancashire and it’s many visitors?

 After many years of searching for the right building in the right location from which we could run our emergency rescue missions, the search is finally over. Following a stroke of luck, we’ve found a building that will become our new emergency rescue centre. Located near the M6 motorway, response times to emergencies will be dramatically reduced when we’re finally able to move in. At a cost of £200,000 we still need to raise a final £50,000 to see its purchase complete. In addition it needs to be fitted out with all the necessary infrastructure and back-up facilities needed to support any rescue mission. To do this we need to raise an additional £30,000. Would you be able to make a donation or run a fund raising or sponsored event to help bring to an end our longest search ever and in doing so play a part in helping people in peril across the county for years to come?  

 How you can help us

 Every rescue needs an effective support and back-up capability. Starting with training facilities for team members right through to equipment drying and replenishment resources at the conclusion of a rescue. In order for the centre to fully support these rescue activities, the building needs suitably fitting out. The office area needs desks, chairs, maps, a telephone/fax, stationary, a computer and a radio for communicating with search and rescue team on the ground. An upper floor needs to be constructed from which training sessions, lectures and seminars can be held. Seating for up to 60, an audio visual projector, a screen, lighting and other training aids are required. A drying room needs building along with the installation of a heater dryer. A small kitchen area with facilities to prepare hot drinks and meals for team members at the end of a long rescue would be most welcome. And finally, a climbing wall which would be used not only by team members for training, but also by members of the general public and other invited visitors to the building. An opportunity for them to experience the exhilaration of climbing and abseiling for perhaps the first time in their lives. 

 About the work of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue team

 Imagine walking down the street, tripping over the kerb and breaking an ankle. Despite being in pain, you’d be comforted by the knowledge that within a few minutes you’d be safe and warm in an ambulance and on the way to hospital.

 Now imagine having the same accident on a bridle way, a country footpath or a mountainside. Suddenly, the dawning recognition that the hospital is not so close begins to form in your mind. Someone from your party must return to civilisation to raise the alarm, a long delay before the 999 call is even made. In gathering gloom and in worsening weather you sit cold, wet and shivering whilst the Mountain Rescue Team is scrambled to your assistance. You’re now starting to suffer from hypothermia because you’ve been laid on the cold ground for the last hour or so.  Finally, you see lights of the Rescue Team approaching in the gloom and you breathe a sigh of relief. Within minutes they splint your broken ankle, give you pain relief and stabilise your hypothermia before evacuating you to safety. The journey to hospital, carried on a stretcher down the mountainside to a waiting ambulance, may take a further few hours but you know now you are in safe hands.

 Over 1700 searches and evacuations like the one portrayed here, have been undertaken by Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team over the last 25 years. Operating 365 days a year, day and night, team members demonstrate selflessness and a social conscience, often placing their own lives at risk to save others. 

 Growing pressure on our service

 In recent years the team has seen a broadening of its operations from its traditional role of assisting people on the fells and mountains into more rural and urban locations. Searches and evacuations in and around the towns and villages of the county for the old and infirm, people with dementia, children, vulnerable adults, even road accident victims from ravines are now commonplace occurrences. In February 2004 the team was heavily involved in the search of Morecambe Bay for Chinese Cocklers, sadly 23 of whom lost their lives.

 Our urgent need – to get to the scene more quickly

 Lancashire has a first class motorway network and once accessed, response times will be dramatically reduced once this new emergency response centre becomes operational. Located near Garstang, halfway between junctions 32 and 33 of the M6, we’ll be able to react to emergency calls more swiftly than ever before. The reduction in response times and the speed by which the injured person will reach hospital significantly improves their survival rate and lessens their pain and suffering.

 The Budget

 A total of £80,000 is required to complete the buildings purchase and see it fitted out as an operations centre in order for it to fully support our rescue missions. We’ve already raised twice is amount with help from generous individuals, companies and organisations and we’re confident one final push will see it all come together very soon

 The Benefits

 Your assistance in helping to meet this total will have far reaching benefits to all vulnerable members of society across Lancashire no matter where they live their origins or ethnicity. Our mission is simple – to locate and recover injured or missing persons from wild and remote locations, to a hospital or other place of safety, in the shortest possible time.

If you can help in any way, contact us via any of the following means -