The group of Cumbrian mountain rescuers on standby in Essex. Photo: Wasdale MRT

A group of volunteer mountain rescuers made an 800-mile round trip to help victims of flooding during this week’s exceptional winter storm.

Eight rescuers from the Lake District travelled to the far end of the country at the request of emergency authorities to be on standby as the east coast of England was threatened with inundation.

Six Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team members and two from the neighbouring Duddon and Furness team made a blue-light journey through the night to Essex where a combination of storm force winds, spring tide and low pressure put large areas of the country at risk of flooding.

The eight were all trained in swiftwater rescue techniques in addition the standard casualty care and other skills mountain rescuers need.

The minibus carrying the rescuers arrived in Essex at 5am after travelling down the motorway from the Wasdale base at Gosforth, Cumbria. In the end, their rescue services were not needed and they returned north later that day.

Richard Warren of the Wasdale team said the rescuers received a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs grant for swiftwater rescue equipment and training on the proviso they made themselves available – subject to local callouts taking precedence – for rescues across the country.

He said the group originally were told late on Thursday they were needed in Norfolk. En route, the destination was changed to Hull then finally to Essex, 400 miles and 5½ hours’ drive from the teams’ base.

Wasdale, the more familiar stomping ground of the mountain rescue teams

Mr Warren, who is also chair of the Lake District’s umbrella group for its 12 mountain rescue teams, said within Cumbria there are almost 100 trained swiftwater rescuers and another 200 capable of bank-side rescue operations.

He told BBC Radio Cumbria: “It was a fantastic demonstration to a national body that Cumbria can respond immediately, at the drop of a hat, with volunteers, with a specialist group.”

Mr Warren said teams from around the country were at the scene. “The whole of the east coast was in a pretty difficult situation.”

One team member, Stephen Walter, an outdoor instructor and Wasdale MRT volunteer for 14 year, spent his birthday on the callout to Essex.

The tired group of rescuers arrived back on Friday evening at its headquarters near the Cumbrian coast and was immediately called out to a rescue closer to home, on the Wast Water Screes.