Fourteen volunteers carry injured walker out of Golitha Falls

A slip on wet rock beside one of Bodmin Moor’s best loved beauty spots turned into a two hour operation on Saturday afternoon, ending with fourteen volunteers carrying an injured walker back through the woods to the car park.

📷Credit: ECSRT

A call to Golitha Falls

East Cornwall Search and Rescue Team was called out at 3.54pm on Saturday 15 August, asked to assist the South Western Ambulance Service at Golitha Falls, the wooded gorge on the River Fowey where day trippers come to walk, picnic and cool off in the water. A woman had slipped on the rocks and suffered a significant ankle injury.

The team’s first volunteer reached the car park within 15 minutes and made their way in to join a Community First Responder, who was already with the casualty and her friends at the scene, just past the second wheel pit on the riverside path.

Pain relief, then fourteen pairs of hands

📷Credit: ECSRT

Team members and a paramedic administered pain relief so the injury could be reduced and stabilised before the woman could be moved. Fourteen ECSRT volunteers then carried her on a stretcher back to the car park, where she was handed over to an ambulance crew for the journey to Derriford Hospital.

The team wished her well with her recovery in the post confirming the callout.

A charity that runs almost entirely on volunteers

East Cornwall’s volunteer search and rescue charity covers lost, missing and injured people across the moor and further afield when other teams need help, and relies on public support to stay operational. Anyone who needs the team in an emergency should dial 999 and ask Devon and Cornwall Police for Mountain Rescue.

The charity takes donations through Givey, and shoppers can raise free donations for the team through easyfundraising at no extra cost to themselves.

The team’s Saturday post carried one more line, an apology to Bodmin Carnival for missing its parade.

📷Credit: ECSRT