I am running Chester Marathon on Sunday 9th Oct followed to raise loads of cash for Llanberis Mountain Rescue, who offer life saving search and rescue services made up solely of volunteers! I do hope you will support me once you have read on...
Let me take you back to Sunday 30th Jan. While the weather was cold and icy we had a clear blue sky, so it was perfect for a Sunday walk up Snowdon; little did we know this seemingly perfect day was to be tinged with both adventure and near tragedy.
After a couple of hours walking having reached the zig zag path not far from the summit, we heard screams from above. A lady, who we later found out was walking Snowdon to celebrate her 60 birthday, had slipped off the path as she tried to avoid ice. She bounced over the rocks and began cart wheeling down the face of the cliff. Although rocks and ice broke her fall, every time she came to a stop, her limp body would slip once again and continue to fall. She finally came to rest about 50 feet away from us, face down in a small stream, completely lifeless.
While my boyfriend Chris and friend Dave (both trained fire-fighters) ran over to assess her, she was blue in the face and did not appear to be breathing. They didn’t want to move her as she could have suffered bad back injuries but the boys decided to carefully turn her over; she then regained full consciousness. She had visibly serious head injuries, so Chris and Dave gave her a full body check doing their best to immobilise her in case of back and neck injury. Heavy bleed bandages were also applied and we focused on trying to calm her and keep her warm.
We alerted the emergency services immediately and within the hour Llanberis Mountain Rescue were scrambled along with 22 Squadron from RAF Valley. When the helicopter arrived, the winchman came down to assess the situation (but no, it wasn't Prince William flying the Sea King!). Once they had lowered the stretcher, and the neck brace was applied she was quickly airlifted into the helicopter and whisked away to Bangor hospital which was waiting her arrival.
By this time, the woman's husband was in a severe state of shock, so much so that he also fell and broke his arm on our descent of the mountain.
We heard that remarkably, both made a full recovery very quickly - the lady sustaining 76 stitches in her head. She had broken many ribs as well as a broken limb and plastic surgery was on the cards from impact injuries to the head but otherwise was a very lucky lady.
Looking back on the day, it was very hard to deal with having witnessed such a massive and potentially life-threatening accident literally right in front of us. This story has a happy ending, and as such we were grateful for the support of Llanberis Moutain Rescue that day.
In running the Chester Marathon I would like to acknowledge the exceptional expertise of the RAF and, more so, to the Llanberis Mountain Rescue, who escorted us all down the mountain and fed and watered us at their base at Nant Peris. These people voluntarily give up their days and nights to attend these kind of incidents, with minimal resources from which to fund their activities.
If you have a heart and think "that may be me one day", or just out of respect for the voluntary work of these selfless rescue teams, then please sponsor me. Thank you.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.
