Rescuers needed to help save lives (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Rescuers needed to help save lives

Ref. 29208-103A MAN stormed out of his home with his toddler daughter after a row with his wife on Sunday, prompting a full-scale search by Wiltshire Search and Rescue volunteers.

The scenario played out at Stanton Park, in Stanton Fitzwar-ren, near Swindon, was just an exercise but it was based on experience.

The group has already been called out on real emergencies four times since the beginning of the year, once to search for an elderly woman with dementia who had gone missing.

She was found safe and well but members of the group expect that it won't be very long before the next call comes, which is one of the reasons why they are seeking new recruits.

Press officer Kathy Sadler said: "What we have is volunteers from all over Wiltshire but what we don't have is a high percentage of people from Swindon."

She joined the group about 18 months ago.

"I had a personal family experience of someone going missing and I discovered how horrible it was to sit at home and not be able to do anything," she said.

When she heard a programme on the radio about the service she volunteered straightaway.

Members come from all walks of life and include an amateur mountaineer, a gamekeeper and an air traffic controller, as well as shop assistants, an IT consultant and a plasterer.

The group relies entirely on fundraising to buy its own equipment and, since it started nearly four years ago, it has been called out on a regular basis to search for missing children, confused and vulnerable elderly people and others who have medical conditions like diabetes or epilepsy.

Before the hunt for Linda Razzell became a murder inquiry they were asked by the police to carry out initial searches in Swindon.

They were also alerted when Government scientist David Kelly went missing in Oxfordshire, although his body was found almost as soon as they received the request.

Sometimes the searches will have an unhappy ending, but the volunteers always tackle them with optimism.

"For every person who goes missing there are people who are scared because their relative is out there and there is something wrong," said Kathy.

"If we go out, regardless of what we find, at least they get an answer quite quickly,"

"We feel euphoric if we find someone alive, especially if it is after several days and we didn't think we were going to get a good result."

But with only 34 trained and qualified members, new volunteers are badly needed.

Searching for missing people is labour-intensive and often takes a long time.

Searchers can only work for a maximum of six hours at a time, before fatigue and often the weather conditions take their toll.

Sunday's training exercise was an opportunity to test out the group's newly acquired communications van and a new system using kayaks to search the water's edge.

For more details call Kathy on 07799 066486.

Tina Clarke