Stelfox backs rescue team fundraiser

Stelfox backs rescue team fundraiser

30 October 2024

THE Mourne Mountain Rescue Team’s fundraising campaign for its planned new base received a major boost following two recent talks by revered mountaineer Dawson Stelfox.

The news was confirmed shortly before the team’s latest emergency response last Thursday evening when volunteers were requested by police to assist a walker who had suffered injuries from a fall while descending Slieve Donard.

The alarm was raised shortly before 6pm with volunteers locating the walker in the upper reaches of the Glen River Valley. 

After an initial assessment and treatment for a lower leg injury, the casualty was evacuated by stretcher.

Following a short shuttle by vehicle to Newcastle, the injured walker was transferred to hospital, with the rescue team volunteers standing down shortly after 9.30pm.

Meanwhile, the recent fundraising event on behalf of the rescue team was organised to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first Irish ascent of Mount Everest with Dawson Stelfox — who led the 1993 Everest expedition — speaking at the Tollymore National Outdoor Centre.

The event helped raise £3,500 with the mountaineer’s talks entitled Six Great Alpine North Faces and The Northern Ridge of Everest.

Dawson was joined by Jim Brown at Tollymore event which brought the wider community together to celebrate the passion shared of mountaineering through tales of the mountaineers adventures and Jim’s poetry. 

Rescue team members have described the community’s response to its fundraising campaign as ‘immense” with people and groups donating 

funds to raise the cash required for the new base at the foothills of the Mournes.

The cost of the ultra-modern regional facility in Newcastle has rocketed to £1m, leaving the rescue team needing £400,000 to deliver it.

Originally, the cost of the new base on land at Shanslieve Drive in the resort was £650,000 but, due to significant increases in construction costs, the price has almost doubled.

To compound the current difficulty the highly acclaimed rescue team finds itself in, two grants worth £1m were lost as delays in securing planning permission for the site owned by supermarket giant Lidl meant the deadline for spending the money was missed.

The rescue team has reached out to the public to raise the money it needs to leave the charity debt free and able to focus on delivering its highly regarded rescue service.

The appeal for public support was launched earlier this year with the rescue team explaining it  has 30,000 followers and if everyone donated £13.33 the £400,000 would be raised.

Twelve years ago — when the rescue team celebrated its 50th anniversary — it identified one of the key challenges it faced was the lack of a fit for purpose base and set itself the target of finding a new home.

Lidl stepped forward with the offer of a site adjacent to its planned new store with planning approval applied for in 2017. Objections to the store proposal and Covid further delayed the project.

With £600,000 in the bank courtesy of donations and the efforts of fundraisers over the past 12 years and formal planning approval now in place, the rescue team’s focus is on raising the £400,000 needed to allow construction work to start.

Rescue team officials say with a real opportunity to get on-site in the not-too-distant future, they need public support to help them plug the funding shortfall.

The preferred option is to raise the funds to complete the build without burdening the team with a significant debt, but the rescue team may have to look at alternative options including securing a loan. 

The main drive is on raising all the £400,000 required to build the base as planned to leave the charity debt free and ensure the money would not have to be borrowed.

To make a donation to the appeal visit  https://www.mournemrt.org/donate/