RADIO personality and author Stuart Maconie has agreed to become a patron of Coniston Mountain Rescue Team.

Mr Maconie, who has made many appearances on both TV and radio, and currently co-hosts a programme on BBC Radio 2 three evenings a week, is a keen fell walker having completed a round of all 214 Wainwrights in 2009. He is also the author of several acclaimed books, including Cider with Roadies and Pies and Prejudice “I am delighted and flattered to have been asked to become patron of the Coniston Mountain Rescue team,” said Mr Maconie. “I spend as much time as I can in Cumbria these days and regard myself as an adopted Cumbrian. But my roots are in Lancashire, and the Old Man of Coniston was once a Lancashire lad like me, so I feel a special kinship for Coniston and the old Furness Fells.

“Everyone who loves the hills and high places respects and admires the tireless and entirely voluntary work these teams put in, and I am proud to be associated with them. I hope I never need their help, though – except perhaps for carrying a few pints back from the bar of one of the pubs in the village.”

Mr Maconie’s influence is a welcome boost to the team as it embarks upon fundraising to replace its fleet of Land Rover ambulances, the oldest of which dates from 1988.