Northumberland Freemasons have continued their ongoing support of the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, with a boost of £1000, through the Richard Henry Holmes Benevolent Fund, towards the cost of a new off-road emergency vehicle.
The team are raising funds to replace their Land Rover Defender 130, which has reached the end of its 10 year life, with a state of the art Toyota Hilux, which would be far more reliable.
Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team are a voluntary organised and registered charity, made up of 40 operational members, who provide an important life-saving service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, covering from north of Berwick down to Sunderland and from the East coast to Alston. The area they cover is the largest operational area of any Mountain Rescue Team in the country.
They respond to incidents including rescuing seriously injured climbers and mountain bikers, searching for missing walkers in the hills and vulnerable or despondent individuals from home in both urban and rural areas, as well as responding to sever weather events. In this years’ first quarter alone they responded to 50 incidents, with two rescues in the Cheviots in one week and are expecting a huge influx of visitors to the region this summer with staycations.
Ninette Edwards, the Fundraising Officer for the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, explained “It is critical that Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team have safe, reliable 4×4 vehicles that can deploy without delay in all weathers, on and off road, in order to provide its life-saving service. The Team hugely appreciate the support of the Freemasons in our fundraising efforts to replace our oldest Land Rover Defender with a new, reliable Toyota Hilux.”
Stuart Cairns, the Secretary to the Trustees of the Richard Henry Holmes Benevolent Fund, said “The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team is a professional, voluntary organisation who provide a rescue and often life-saving service to those who enjoy our wonderful outdoor areas. Their vehicles are regularly in need of service and repair and I am delighted that the Freemasons of Northumberland has awarded a Grant of £1,000 in support of the cost of those vehicle services and repairs.”
Find out more about the fantastic work undertaken by the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team at http://nnpmrt.org/
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