Snorri Þórisson of BHSI with his search and rescue dog Kolur

While president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson may have decided to put to a referendum the decision to return £3.4bn to the British Treasury, one group of Icelanders has shown more generosity with a donation to the Cumbrian flood relief fund.

Search and rescue dog handlers in Iceland have a long affiliation with the Search and Rescue Dogs Association in the Lakes and decided to hand over £600 when they saw the county’s plight on television.

The cash will go to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund as thanks for help provided by the Lakes association over the past 17 years. The money comes from the Björgunarhundasveit Íslands (BHSI), the Iceland search and rescue dogs association.

Snorri Þórisson, who is the vice chairman of the Icelandic team, said: “The co-operation started back in 1992 when BHSI received great help from the Lakes group in starting to train our field search dogs.

“From that time we have often had instructors from Sarda Lakes visiting our courses and some of us from Iceland have also been able to take part in Cumbrian training. It is very important for us to have this link to Sarda Lakes to keep the quality standards in our work and we also hope that now Sarda Lakes can benefit something today from this co-operation.”

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team and Sarda Lakes member Mike Blakey, who was the contact for the donation, said: “The Cumbrian floods were featured in the news media over in Iceland and, like a lot of people, I suppose, the members of BHSI thought of the people they knew here and were keen to find out if we were all OK.

Members of the Icelandic Search and Rescue Dogs Association, Björgunarhundasveit Íslands (BHSI)

“The donation to the Recovery Fund is very welcome and we can only thank the team out in Iceland for their concern and their generosity.”

Many of the Lake District’s mountain rescue teams and SARDA dogs were involved in searches and rescues associated with the flooding last November in Keswick, Penrith, Ullswater and Cockermouth.

Mr Blakey said: “As well as training for mountains, many of our volunteers also train for swift-water rescue and we do joint training with RNLI and the coastguard for support on lake rescues on and around Ullswater.

“Our own base in Patterdale was nearly cut off by the floods and it was only right that we were able to help the local residents and businesses who so often support us with funding and donations.”