Awareness of mountain rescue team's work is the aim of the May Day events

Members of England and Wales’s volunteer mountain and cave rescue teams will raise their profile next month with a national day of events which aims to inform the public about their work.

Teams from Dartmoor to the North-East of England will stage public events, from abseils to rescue demonstrations. Walking celebrity Julia Bradbury, president of the Ramblers, is supporting the awareness day, which aims to demonstrate the breadth of work the rescuers undertake.

National Mountain and Cave Rescue Awareness Day is on the May Day bank holiday – 3 May – and events will be hosted in many of the areas covered by the volunteer teams, whose unpaid members help not just in the mountains and caves of Britain, but also with civil emergencies such as the 2009 floods, snowstorms and air and rail crashes.

Ms Bradbury, who presented the popular Wainwright’s Walks on BBC television and is one of the hosts on BBC1’s Countryfile, said: “I’ve been hillwalking for many years now, in anything from glorious sunshine to the worst conditions Mother Nature could throw at me.

Julia Bradbury: comforting to know the teams are there if needed

“Fortunately I’ve managed to avoid accidents but it’s comforting to know that if things do go wrong a local mountain rescue team is always ready to help. Mountain and Cave Rescue Awareness Day on the 3 May will give you the opportunity to see how a rescue team works, whether they’re rescuing an injured climber or walker, attending an emergency at a snow-bound house, or chest deep in a flooded high street.”

Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team will be holding an open day at its headquarters on Saturday 1 May as part of the awareness campaign. The town was one of the worst hit by the floods last year, which involved all 12 Lake District mountain rescue teams carrying out search and rescue work with other emergency services over a period of days as torrential floods left many residents and visitors stranded.

The open day will coincide with the Georgian fair which is held every other year in the town. It will be the first big event to go ahead in the town since the floods. Team members will be on hand to show members of the public around their base.

On the May Day bank holiday, Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team, based on the north-eastern edge of the Peak District, will stage search and rescue dog demonstrations, an orienteering course, free map and compass training, a display of vehicles and kit and an observation test.

There will also be video and photo displays at the event at Langsett Barn, off the A616 between Stocksbridge and the Flouch Inn.

A spokesperson for the Woodhead team said: “There will be activities for the kids and the community first responder team will be giving free first aid and CPR instruction.

“As well as the opportunity to meet the team you could just have a walk round the woods and reservoir and experience the natural beauty of our area. You could also win a day out with the team.

“The focus to the day is ‘So much more than mountains’, given the teams’ ever changing role and increasing involvement in more police searches and civil contingency actions. For example, 20 members of the team were called to search for a missing vulnerable 16-year-old girl in the Barnsley area in the early hours of the 15 April. The teenager was eventually found safe and well at 5am.”

Other incidents where mountain rescue teams’ expertise has been called upon include the Lockerbie air disaster, the Kegworth air crash, the Grayrigg train crash and searches for high-profile missing persons such as York chef Claudia Lawrence.

Most teams helped civilian ambulance, police and fire and rescue crews during the protracted winter conditions at the beginning of this year.

Sarda dogs and their handlers work on many rescues

Rossendale & Pendle MRT will take part in a sponsored abseil from Peel Tower, Holcombe Hill, near Ramsbottom, Bury on Monday 3 May, and the North of Tyne team will be holding an open day at Go Outdoors, West Denton, Newcastle upon Tyne. Team members will be on hand to offer advice and Search and Rescue Dogs Association dogs will be present – with which the public can be pictured. There will also be a climbing wall, along with general information and displays about North of Tyne MRT.

Street collections will be held by the Edale team in Bakewell, Hathersage and Edale; Peak District colleagues from Buxton MRT will carry out collections in Buxton between 10am and 4pm, with a manned static display of kit in the Spring Gardens Shopping Centre.  There will also be a fundraising day at Castleton. Elsewhere in the Peak, Kinder MRT will be fundraising and mounting a display at Sainsbury’s, Hazel Grove, and the Glossop team will be fundraising at the town’s Tesco.

Langdale and Ambleside MRT will be collecting in Ambleside outside local outdoor shops; and North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team has arranged displays and collections at the garages and service stations on routes into north Dartmoor.

There are 53 teams in England and Wales organised into eight regions, plus three Sarda organisations whose handlers work with mountain rescue teams on searches. North of the border, the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland represents 29 teams. There are also two Sarda organisations in Scotland.