Birthday call-outs!
Birthday call-outs!
Scottish Mountain Rescue is made up of 24 member teams, our 850 volunteers respond in a moment’s notice, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide assistance to people in the outdoors.
Here are some stories from our volunteers who have been called out on their birthdays:
Angie Kinghorn, Borders Search and Rescue Unit
“Call outs seem to have the uncanny knack of happening on Kinghorn family occasions – my dad and brothers’ birthdays last year, Mum and Dad’s anniversary and now mum’s birthday. Team members might want to pencil 16th February into their diary”
Laura Alexander, Ochils Mountain Rescue Team
“On my birthday in August this year, I didn’t have anything very exciting planned, a quiet day at work and then a nice meal in the evening. However, at lunchtime my phone pinged and a callout message came in. I knew that midweek in August we were likely to be short of numbers, so I made my excuses for the next couple of meetings in my diary, and headed off.
This was a fairly standard callout for us, a suspected broken ankle on the top of Dumyat, our local ‘nice walk on a sunny day’. Unfortunately, the very heavy rain we had had over the previous few days meant our Landrover wouldn’t be able to go up the hill, so it looked like a full stretcher carry both ways, about 5 km in total. 4 team members had already headed up to carry out first aid, leaving 4 of us to take the stretcher, gas cylinders, casualty bag etc up. We fitted the wheel to the stretcher and set off. It was a hot day, and the sweat was pouring off us by the time we reached the casualty. Halfway up it did pass through my mind that this wasn’t quite the way I’d intended to spend my birthday!
The casualty was being dealt with by our casualty carers, all suitably clad in face masks, gloves etc due to Covid. She was glad to get some pain relief, and then we wrapped her up, strapped her into the stretcher and set off back. With 8 of us on the stretcher, and gravity helping, it was easier than on the way out, and it wasn’t too long before we were back at the road and able to hand the casualty over to the ambulance service. I was home in time for my birthday cake after all!”
Tim Spencer, Skye Mountain Rescue Team
“I left my son’s 3rd birthday party for a callout at the top of Bomb Alley on the Cuillin. Admittedly it was pretty much at the tail end of the party and somewhat petering out by that point though.
I was also at the Storr on a callout on my own birthday last year”
How to hold a Birthday Fundraiser?
Do you want to show solidarity with our volunteers? Why not hold a Facebook birthday fundraiser, and ask your friends and families to support Scottish Mountain Rescue for your birthday!
Visit our page for more information on how to set up a Birthday Fundraiser along with images for you to use on social media and e-mail.
If you would like to dedicate your birthday fundraiser to a specific team, then please contact us at fundraising@scottishmountainrescue.org and we will put you in contact with the relevant team.