KuKu Member’s Pledge to Team Who Saved His Life

KuKu member, Matt Hopper from Loughborough recalls, “I felt I was in the air forever as I plummeted downwards” and wouldn’t have survived the night if Edale Mountain Rescue Team hadn’t found him at Cave Dale, Castleton, Peak District where Lord of the Rings was filmed. An eyewitness saw Matt lose his footing, fall 15ft down a steep incline, ricochet into a wall, and bounce back in agony struggling to breathe. The wall saved him falling to his death. The weather was good for his annual getaway with his brother. Only now is Matt well enough to try to raise awareness for Edale Mountain Rescue Team.

Sustaining three broken ribs, internal bleeding, a punctured, collapsed right lung, bruised, battered and with injuries to his right shoulder, Matt will suffer eight months nerve pain. Unable to drive for two months.

Trained volunteers saved his life in August this year. They are available 24/7, 365 days a year at a moment’s notice.

Matt and his brother’s phones were dead but passing students had phones, with the what3words app. They called the emergency services with the precise location then helped get Matt to safer ground.

A precise location sped up the rescue, as it wasn’t necessary to search for Matt. Edale Mountain Rescue Team and an EMAS (East Midlands Ambulance Service) paramedic were with him within 50 minutes. They made sure Matt was coherent, asked him his name, date of birth, where he was from, even what beer he liked to keep him conscious. They took his blood pressure, administered morphine, checked his pulse and vital signs. Supported in a sitting position on a stretcher 19 rescuers took 30 minutes to get Matt down Cave Dale, with 8 team members carrying the stretcher.

Matt says, “My life flashed before my eyes as I fell. I thought that’s it until I hit a wall, barely conscious.” Despite the pain, his breathing was stabilised, regulated and calm before he was moved. Once down, two paramedics from EMAS took over the care, administered more morphine, and transferred Matt to Northern General Hospital, Sheffield where he stayed for five days.

Matt continues, “I owe my life to Edale Mountain Rescue Team. I still wake up from nightmares where I have died, reliving the accident, thankful to be alive. I realise just how short life is and that you never know what is around the corner.

“I want to raise awareness for these unsung heroes, who are available at a moment’s notice.”

It takes at least 18 months to train to become a member of the team. Edale Mountain Rescue Team have attended 133 incidents and team search dog handlers have additionally assisted other teams with 12 search incidents in the year up to 8^th November, 2023.

Photographs show how rough, steep, and inaccessible Matt’s rescue was. One of the team comments, “We like helping people, fellow lovers of the great outdoors. It could be one of us, accidents happen, the weather changes, people get lost. We use local knowledge to navigate rough terrain in the dark and are trained to carry out technical rope rescues when people are stranded in inaccessible locations.”

Edale Mountain Rescue Team is based in Derbyshire, supported entirely by charitable donations, costing £100,000 p.a. All members are volunteers with no paid staff. The team of 50 have a variety of skills including paramedics, medics, and A & E nurses. Most have full-time jobs. All have first aid qualifications, able to make life or death judgements. There are 3 fully equipped first response vehicles with radios, stretchers, first aid, blue lights, ropes etc. and a couple of other vehicles. A local cement works company provides support hosting the team within its site.

With an excellent rescue record, the team liaise with the police, the ambulance service, the air ambulance, and the Maritime Coastguard Agency when someone needs to be winched into a helicopter to receive urgent medical attention. They work closely with the statutory authorities to assist and rescue people during heavy snow or significant flooding. They rescue anyone at risk in the great outdoors including walkers, climbers, cyclists, hang gliders, paragliders, family picnickers, walkers. People with mental health challenges and those with dementia and alzheimer’s who sometimes go missing from care homes.

Edale was one of the first rescue teams to add a wheel to a stretcher, now made commercially.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/matt-hopper-1697195887781