Students rise to dawn rescue on Dartmoor
Imagine walking onto Dartmoor, sleeping rough in a shelter and having had only a few uncomfortable hours sleep to be woken at 4am by a member of Dartmoor Rescue Group asking for your help to find a mountain biker who had been lost overnight. This is what the School Prefects from Trinity School found themselves facing as part of their Leadership Training programme.
Despite having been given the chance to opt out, the Trinity Sixth Form students organised themselves into three teams led by Trinity staff. The 3 teams conducted a search system outlined by Craig Scollick from the Dartmoor Rescue Group (DRG). After about 20 minutes the students in one team located a casualty tangled up in his mountain bike with a compound fracture of the leg. Little did they know that the casualty was Jim Bonney, an ex-Royal Marine who had unbolted his prosthetic limb to make the situation more realistic!
After first aid had been given by Rob Larkman (Head of Key Stage 4 and member of the Teignmouth Lifeboat) and Craig from DRG, the students organised themselves into teams to recover the casualty on a stretcher nearly a kilometre to a 4x4 to meet up with an ambulance. All the adults involved with the exercise were amazed by the way that the Sixth Form students responded to the situation. At 6am the students retired back to camp tired but beaming with pride and feeling a real sense of achievement. Only then did the students find out that it was a training exercise arranged between Trinity School, Dartmoor Rescue Group(www.dsrtashburton.org.uk) and Jim Bonney from Adventure Rehab. Craig and Jim commended the students on their focussed approach as well the professionalism of the Trinity staff involved.
After a hearty cooked breakfast, Jim Bonney from Adventure Rehab (www.adventurerehab.co.uk) led a session on the tenants of leadership. His inspirational presentation based on his own experiences from the Royal Marines, his accident climbing in Canada and his eventual amputation of his lower leg and how he has overcome the challenges to create a positive and successful experience for others amputees – ‘putting life back on track’.
For more information on either of the groups who worked with Trinity School on this project please select the links below:
Jim Bonney – Adventure Rehab - www. adventurerehab.co.uk
ADVENTURE REHAB aims to deliver their amputee clients to a point where they can live independently and undertake meaningful choices in vocation, leisure and social activities commensurate with their expectations and experience prior to injury.
ADVENTURE REHAB programme is delivered by a multi-disciplinary team, who work with clients to rehabilitate them both physically and emotionally. ADVENTURE REHAB uses the outdoors as their clinic, breaking away from the traditional clinical stereotypes.
Dartmoor Rescue Group - www.dsrtashburton.org.uk
Dartmoor Rescue Group (DRG) consists of four teams of volunteers who provide a 24/7 search and rescue service across the 368 square miles of the Dartmoor National Park.
The volunteers from Dartmoor Search and Rescue (Ashburton) respond primarily to incidents in the south eastern part of Dartmoor but may be called out to attend elsewhere as requested by Devon and Cornwall Police.
As with all Mountain Rescue teams throughout Britain, Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team (Ashburton) is a charity. As safety cannot be compromised, the rescue team must raise £14,000 annually for maintenance and replacement of essential rescue equipment.
Posted by
Mark Acher
Date
28/06/2012 11:17:09
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