On 27th January 2017, Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team was alerted by Yorkshire Ambulance Service to an incident [Incident 990] involving a 21yo mountain biker who had fallen off his bike whilst riding near Otley Chevin sustaining chest and shoulder injuries.

17 team members were available to respond immediately and made their way in team vehicles or directly to the casualty’s location. Once on-scene, team members quickly packaged the injured rider in a vacuum mattress and transferred him to the ambulance nearby for onward journey to hospital.

After the team hands over the casualty to the ambulance service our involvement usually ends, apart from an update from the hospital on the patients wellbeing, or a thank you letter or mention on social media.

However on this occasion, members of the casualties family recently contacted the team to say they were extremely thankful for the teams help and mentioned they wanted to show their appreciation by doing a skydive to help raise funds for us.

Ok, so can we take this opportunity to say… once we’ve rescued someone, we don’t expect all our casualties or family members to throw themselves out of an aeroplane for the benefit of the team! That said, CVSRT are extremely grateful that folk feel compelled to go to extraordinary lengths to raise awareness and funds for us.

The charity skydive happened last week, (Friday 16th June) at Skydive GB, near Bridlington, and we can thankfully confirm that Debbie Forrest, Richard Fenty and Simon Manning all made it safely back to blighty in one piece. They have also confirmed that the casualty is making good progress and should make a full recovery.

The adventurous trio are still accepting donations, so if you would like to sponsor them please do so via: https://www.paypal.me/charityskydive

We will announce the final amount raised once all sponsorship has been collected.

Thank you