Meet Our Volunteers | Mary Abercombie

Meet Our Volunteers | Mary Abercombie

Mary Abercrombie: hill loving outdoor girl with medical skills and mountain rescue volunteer, talks about her experiences with Ochils Mountain Rescue Team.

I was inspired to join mountain rescue, and combine my love of the hills with my medical background (I am a GP), when my uncle was rescued from Glen Etive, after a long (6 day) and frustrating search and a hugely technical rescue.  I am delighted to say that I have now been a volunteer for 10 years.

It’s one thing to assess and treat people in my surgery but it has been such a rewarding experience to take my skills into the hills and I continue to be thoroughly impressed with the skills of my non-medical team mates, who are always keen to learn.  I’ve now been ‘promoted’ to Medical Officer of the Ochils Team. Through Covid times this has been a challenging experience and has added to the many and varied duties needed to keep the medical side of the team operating safely and effectively.

I have been walking in Scotland for many years having completed my Munros in 1998, followed by the Corbetts and I am currently chipping away at the Grahams.  I LOVE walking anywhere but preferably with my dog (and husband!).