Dear Follower – this is what i have just sent out as a press release from LDSAMRA.

It was a relatively slow start to 2023 with respect to numbers of callouts for our 12 rescue teams with over 400 volunteer team members but things have now caught up with previous record levels. With 182 callouts since the start of 2023, April has experience our busiest increase with 56 calls for help via ‘999’ to Cumbria Police or the Northwest Ambulance Service. This is a 30% increase on April 2022 and a 50% increase on April 2019. Lost and overdue remains high at 30% of all calls hence this press release in advance of the weekend to offer friendly advice. The AdventureSmart campaign (see attached) may not appear to be reducing the number of truly avoidable lost and overdue callouts, but your efforts in promoting it are making a difference to keeping the total numbers down which hopefully will start to stabilise around the 600 per year rather than increase.

Thank you for your continuing interest and support,
Richard Warren
Chair LDSAMRA
There are three videos that have been included as three bullet points on the first page of the press release.