Edale Mountain Rescue Team - What they do and why I'm running for them

Edale MR Team is made up entirely of volunteers and funded entirely through donations; they receive no funding from government.  They operate in the North of the Peak District but frequently work alongside other teams in the Peak and in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. Their core duty is to help climbers, walkers, and anyone else who has come a cropper in the sometimes difficult terrain of the Dark Peak area although they are often called to assist other emergency services in the area too.

The service is free to anyone that needs it but the annual cost of running the team is around £50,000.  This money is needed for such things as team training exercises, response vehicles and other equipment like defibrillator and stretchers.

The team traces their history back to the early fifties, got their first vehicle in 1992.  By 2006 the roster was three vehicles and apart from the first have all been donated - in turn the team pass on their old vehicles to other teams around the country.

By October 2010 the team had already had more call outs than in any other year making it the busiest ever year.  Here's a round-up of the type of incidents they deal with (I've taken the info from looking at their facebook page): boulders spraining ankles; 64 year old man got into difficulty, needed air ambulance; D of E group didn't make cut-off before dark, found by team using rescue dog; general injuries to walkers on well known, well trodden paths - could happen to anyone; mountain biker coming off and fracturing ribs.

What strikes me about all of these incidents is that they're all activities which I take part in; in fact one was a boulder on the trackside boulder at Curbar, I was there bouldering about a month ago.  And the other thing is that the incidents aren't caused by stupidity, they're just incidents; I've fallen off bouldering routes before, I've come off my bike before, I've accidentally stepped in a rabbit hole before. Anyone of these accidents could have been that bit worse and if they had have been I may well have called Mountain rescue.

For anyone that enjoys being out in the countryside don't think it will never happen, it could, please support my fund-raising efforts.