Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team Relay summer 2014

Summer 2014

Patrick Relay News from the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team

Trailer handover from amazing friends and family A donation of more than £10,000 from the friends and family of Chris Bygate was marked with the official handover of a new Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team trailer earlier this year.

Chris died at James Cook Hospital in Middlesborough back in October 2012, shortly after a fall from Greenhow End in Deepdale. Since then, family and friends from across the country have raised an incredible amount of money for the two charities involved in his rescue, Patterdale MRT and the Great North Air Ambulance.

More than 25 family members and friends visited Patterdale MRT’s Rescue Centre in April to meet Team members and to handover a new trailer to the Team, something that wouldn’t have been completed without their generosity. The overall donation has been raised in numerous ways and Chris’s fiancée, Gar-Ling Ng has been the force behind a lot of the fundraising, even encouraging friends to take part in a half Iron Man event last year to raise money in Chris’s memory.

“Gar-Ling has motivated people to do things they’d never have dreamt of,” said Chris’s father, Michael Bygate, “and Chris would’ve been pleased with the causes supported in his memory.”

A Patterdale MRT trailer has been in the planning for several years but, as Chairman of Trustees, John Williams said, “We’ve never quite had the resources

available to make it happen but the donation in memory of Chris has made it a reality. We’ll be able to use this fantastic resource at events and with groups so it has fundraising and educational benefits but it’s also been designed so that we can use it as an operational vehicle and a control centre if needed.”

Team members, Dave Freeborn and Glenn Bridge did most of the design and livery work on the trailer and supporters may have seen it out and about fundraising and explaining the role of mountain rescue in the valley, particularly over the Easter weekend at the Duck Race.

Visit the Patterdale Mountain Rescue web site at www. mountainrescue.org.uk for latest call outs

50 years a Team 1964

Doctor James Ogilvie formed a rescue team when he came to the dale in 1963 and it was officially recognised in October 1964. “Doc O” was Team Leader for our early years and the Team worked with very little equipment, borrowing radios when needed and using mainly members’ own personal gear. The Team often worked with Outward Bound at Watermillock and Patterdale Hall. The Team handled 14 call outs in its first year.

1966

The Team got its first rescue base when The Patterdale Hotel gave part of Deer How for use as an HQ.

1973

“Doc O” handed over to Bob Gallagher (far right in photo) as Team Leader. Bob was also warden of Greenside Youth Hostel and an instructor at Ullswater Outward Bound.

1975

The late Joe Boothroyd (3rd from left in photo) became Team Leader and he was also chair of our regional organisation, the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association (LDSAMRA).

1983-1991

Tom Fynn (on left of photo) was Team Leader during this period and he was one of the first to fight and lobby for VAT relief on mountain rescue expenditure. He achieved zero rating on many items of equipment in 1987 and a “discussion” with the Treasury continues today.

1988

Members of Patterdale MRT were among those who helped search for wreckage from PanAm flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie in December of this year.

1991

Dave Freeborn (who designs Relay) was appointed Team Leader (and later recognised for his long service with an MBE in 2010).

1994

As a result of a regional review of resources, it was recommended that the two local teams – Ullswater Outward Bound and Patterdale – should be amalgamated.

Steve Howe, the OB Team Leader at the time, is still a Trustee of Patterdale MRT in 2014.

1996

It took the Team 32 years to reach its 1000th rescue.

1999

After years of planning discussions and fundraising, the Team’s dream of a new Base became a reality with the opening of the aptly named (see 1964) Ogilvie House.

Fundraising for the Base included the creation of our Supporters’ Club, led by Chairman, John Scott.

Visit the Patterdale Mountain Rescue web site at www. mounta

2005

The Team attended the Carlisle floods, using our Rigid Inflatable Boat (or RIB) to rescue people and pets and to deliver food and supplies to those who stayed at home.

Team Land Rovers also ferried fuel to the operation centre for Cumbria Fire and Rescue.

2007

Another non-mountain incident grabbed the headlines when Team members were amongst those involved in rescuing people after the Grayrigg train crash. 2007 was also the year that GPS mapping became fully operational – something that we almost take for granted now, just a few years later.

2008

Martin Cotterell took over as Team Leader and we launched our new RIB on Ullswater, named Patrick Scotty in memory of John Scott (see 1999).

2009

Heavy rain led to flooding call outs at Pooley Bridge and the surrounding area and then heavy snow led to several rescues from trapped cars on Kirkstone Pass. A Royal visitor in July when HRH Duke of Cambridge (or Prince William as he was then) visited Base and climbed Helvellyn with a group of youngsters (and Team members) as part of a national MREW Princes’ Forum event with Centrepoint and Well Child charities.

2010

A record year with 83 rescues – heading for 2000 fast!

2011 HRH 1 Landrover

Team was lucky to be drawn as the “winner” of a fully kitted out Land Rover, given as a wedding gift to Prince William and Kate by the manufacturers and then donated to MREW. We passed on a vehicle to another Team, who passed on one of theirs and the benefits were spread out as widely as possible.

2013

During this year we passed the milestone of 2000 call outs for the Team. Mike Blakey took over from Martin as Team Leader and we spent an unusual day with University of Central Lancashire researchers seeing how drones (also known as UAVs) and social media might assist search and rescue in years to come.

2014

50 years milestone and we now own a smart promotional trailer and both our Rescue Centre building and the land it’s built on.

With huge thanks to all our supporters.

ainrescue.org.uk for latest call out information and Team news

S U P P O RT I N G T H E T E A M F O R Y E A R S TO C O M E

PATRICK RELAY l Summer 2014

Legacies campaign to celebrate half century

WHERE THERE’S A

WILL

In its fiftieth year, the Team has launched a campaign to encourage supporters to remember the Team in their wills.

“Legacies and wills are sensitive issues, so it is vital that a small charity like us takes care to do the right thing,” says Chris Gaskarth, the Team member who is leading the campaign.“We worked with Trevor Price, a Director of Arnison Heelis Solicitors in Penrith,” explains Chris, “and he’s helped us to put together a publicity leaflet, an information booklet and pages for our website that give accurate guidance and advice if people would like to include the Team in their will.”

Trevor has been advising the Team on its legal affairs for over 15 years: “A decade or so ago, someone including a legacy to a

charity would usually go for one of the big national or international charities. However, things have really swung away from that now,” he says. “For us, the most popular areas for legacies are now very much the local charities - hospices, the air ambulance, animal refuges and, of course, mountain rescue. I think people have more confidence that their donation will be well spent in a smaller organisation and used as they’d intended.”

The first people to receive the legacies leaflet were members of our Supporters’ Club and the local businesses in the area who advertise regularly in the Team’s Annual Report.

Man’s best friend?

New website design Supporters will have noticed that we’ve refreshed our website in recent months, updating the design and making several areas, particularly News, much clearer. “Web design keeps evolving and changing,” says Team member, Dave Freeborn, “and we know we have to keep up with some of those changes.

We’ve had good feedback so far and we’re all getting to grips with the content management system to keep it up to date and fresh.”

The website can be found via www.mountainrescue. org.uk and via www.patterdalemrt.org.uk.

THERE’S A WAY

How you can leave a gift in your will to help volunteer mountain rescuers save lives

“The leaflet gives basic information and encourages people to ask for a copy of the fuller booklet or to look at it online,” says John Williams, Chairman of the Team’s trustees. “We’re hoping that the celebrations around our 50th birthday may be just the right catalyst to encourage our supporters to take action on a legacy this year.”

Anyone interested in supporting Patterdale MRT through a legacy can find out more on the Team’s website (see below).

The Team has been involved in a couple of dog rescues so far this year and none more heart-warming than the rescue of Bonnie. Back at the beginning of February, a worried walker from Cheshire lost his dog in a snowstorm near Caudale Head and alerted mountain rescue.

The man had slipped and fallen about 150 metres down a very steep snowcovered mountainside.

Whilst he was falling, he lost his dog, a crampon and both walking poles.

Unbelievably, the man survived the fall with only cuts, bruises and a sore shoulder.

He made a concerted effort to climb back up and find his dog but

rightly turned back when the terrain became too difficult.

The Team took the difficult decision to wait for the weather to subside before starting a search for Bonnie, the missing dog, on Sunday morning.

They went prepared to search avalanche prone terrain and eventually spotted a dog sitting on a small rocky outcrop.

She seemed to have been there all night.

Amazingly, Bonnie had survived the cold and, with a bacon sandwich inside her and some dog treats, she was able to walk down the steep mountainside to be reunited with her master.

Articles for Relay We are always looking for interesting articles or letters from supporters. Please write c/o Patrick Relay Editor, Ogilvie House, Patterdale, Cumbria CA11 0PJ The Patterdale Mountain Rescue Association Ltd. is a registered charity No1063329 and is affiliated to the Mountain Rescue Council of England and Wales.