The Westmorland Gazette’s Readers to the Rescue campaign aims to raise £40,000 for Kendal Mountain Rescue Team to buy a new state-of-the-art vehicle that will act as a ‘mobile base’. This would allow better communications on rescues and potentially save lives. This week SARA ROYLE talks to two of the team's members who took on a ‘base to base’ challenge in aid of the campaign.

TWO committed members of Kendal’s Mountain Rescue Team took on a gruelling 280km challenge in aid of the Gazette’s Reader’s to the Rescue appeal.

Team leader Dave Howarth and deputy team leader Kath Jackson cycled, ran and kayaked between each of the 10 mountain rescue team bases in the Lake District.

The duo set out from the opening ceremony of Kendal’s Mountain Festival last Thursday (November 16), returning to base camp after 43 hours and 37 minutes.

Kath said that the event was a ‘tough challenge’ both physically and mentally but she was ‘buzzing’ that the pair had made it.

“We crammed a lot of adventure into a short time and went to some beautiful places but the best part is the warmth of the support we got,” she said.

“It felt like a fantastic illustration of what mountain rescue is about. So many people playing a part to achieve a successful result. That’s how it has to be on a callout, it is never about just one person, it needs everyone backing each other up and working together.”

The pair undertook a similar challenge five years ago, travelling around the edge of the team’s boundary – a distance of 112 miles. However, this year’s undertaking was even more testing.

During the course of their journey, the duo covered around 198 kilometres biking, including Honister Pass and Birker Fell, 58 kilometres running, taking in Helvellyn and Scafell Pike and 24 kilometres of kayaking on Ullswater, Bassenthwaite and Coniston.

They arrived back at the Kendal MRT base on Busher Walk early Saturday afternoon before being welcomed onto the Brewery basecamp stage to explain to festival visitors about the event and the Readers to the Rescue campaign.

Dave said that the event had been a ‘massive team effort’.

“The selflessness of so many is incredible,” he said. “I believe we had some of the best people around us who would do anything they could to help without any fuss and that is what made it such a success. Kath and I just had to keep moving!”

He added that they were grateful to the other teams who got involved, opening their bases at unsocial and unpredictable times to feed us and help them on their way.

If you have been helped by Kendal Mountain Rescue Team and would like to share your story, please contact Sara Royle on 01539 790260 or email sara.royle@nqnw.co.uk

Donations can be made to the campaign at: http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/fundraiser/kendal-rescue-round/my-events