Busy year for Yorkshire's volunteer rescue services in mountains and on rivers

The Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue, which covers the North York Moors, Dalby Forest, and the Yorkshire Wolds, attended 124 incidents.

Made up of 60 people including doctors, nurses and others with climbing experience, the team is entirely voluntary, and on-call day and night through the year.

On Christmas Eve they were called by paramedics to Dalby Forest after a mountain biker injured his ankle, with 14 volunteers helping him to the roadside, splinting his leg.

On Friday they were again called to the forest, this time to help search for vulnerable woman. Six volunteers scoured the forest tracks, finding the woman within two hours, and getting her to safety, cold but well.

In York meanwhile, rescue boat teams revealed 2021 was its busiest ever year for call outs with emergency services, although overall the number of rescues dropped.

York Rescue Boat helped police and fire service crews 61 times and dealt with 80 incidents in total, from calls over concerns for safety, missing people, and people in the city’s rivers.

Volunteers dedicated 8,175 hours of their own time, the charity said, with an estimated equivalent cost being £80,932.

In a round-up of the year, York Rescue Boat said: “Direct actions from our team saw the saving or three lives from imminent danger. York Rescue Boat is a charity, it costs approximately £23,000 per year to ensure our team are always ready to save lives.”