At Montane's showroom in Staveley, Brand Director, Paul Cosgrove, presented representatives of Mountain Rescue England & Wales (MREW) and Kendal MRT with £15,000. This marks the end of two years of fundraising carried out by Montane and kickstarted the Mountain and Cave Rescue Awareness weekend.

The Mountain Rescue Teams operate 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and are run by highly trained volunteers. Their primary focus is to locate and evacuate injured or lost people from upland areas. In 2010, MREW assisted some 1,697 people in total.

The teams also undertake missing person searches in lowland areas where access or terrain hinders normal search rescues, provide NHS ambulance support, provide government support in floods, heavy snowfall and during major incidents, carry out swift water rescues and some animal rescues.

They offer these life-saving services free of charge to the general public and rely completely on sponsorship or fundraising to cover their running costs, including kit. With statistics noting a general increase in incidents requiring call out of a Mountain Rescue Team, Montane was delighted to donate £15,000 to support the MREW Teams.

Paul commented: “We have had a connection with Mountain Rescue throughout our almost 20 year history. Two years ago, we launched a small range of specialist light weight clothing at the Outdoor Show in Birmingham, specifically to raise money for MREW. That work and range has now resulted in a £15,000 donation and it seemed only fitting to hand over this money to the national mountain rescue organisation as part of its Awareness weekend.”

Attending the presentation on behalf of MREW were Neil Roden and David Allan (Chairman) as well as Eddie Harrison (Team Leader) and Dagmar Johnson (Chairman) of the local Kendal Mountain Rescue Team.

“This kind of national support eases the financial pressure on teams and we welcome it,” said Kendal MRT Chair, Dagmar Johnson, “but we are also eternally grateful to the local people and businesses who have always supported us and continue to provide so much of the financial backing to our volunteers.”

National Chairman, David Allan, reinforced those thanks: “Without this sort of support for volunteer rescue from companies like Montane - in money and in kind with equipment - we wouldn't be able to function.”

The opportunity was also taken to launch the new Mountain and Cave Rescue Review of the Year, a magazine with news, features and information about all aspects of search and rescue across England and Wales.

For more information on the Mountain Rescue Teams, or to make a donation, please visit www.mountain.rescue.org.uk.

Information on other Mountain Rescue Teams can be accessed via the links below:

www.mrcofs.org (Scotland)
www.mountainrescue.ie (Ireland)