Torridon Mountain Rescue team chips in to Highlands for Ukraine effort with stretcher donation
They volunteer their time and safety in one of the most idyllically beautiful though remote places — but the members of Torridon Mountain Rescue Team certainly don’t shut themselves off from what’s happening in other parts of the world.
James Hotchkis, Nicola Jackson and Vlad Kudriavtsev. Picture: Iona MacDonald
When they received an appeal for help from James Hotchkis of the charity Highlands for Ukraine, they immediately responded – in the same enthusiastic way they do for every emergency they’re called to around Ross-shire and beyond.
James asked the team if they could spare any older or no-longer-in-use equipment from the 30-member strong team to send to the rescuers trying to save lives in the front-line communities of Ukraine.
The result was three MacInnes stretchers that the team – itself a charity – has recently replaced with new equipment.
And team chair Nicola Jackson was only too pleased to hand them over to the local volunteers that collect and send medical and food aid to beleaguered civilians caught up in nightly bombing and drone attacks on their homes in places like Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Sumy.
Nicola Jackson, Torridon Mountain Rescue Team volunteer. Picture: Iona MacDonald
Nicola said: “The MacInnes stretchers are lightweight and resilient equipment, used for rescues in the mountains; specialised folding alloy equipment, commonly used for rescues worldwide, so should be easily manoeuvred and really useful in the emergency situations volunteers find themselves in on the front-line in Ukraine.
“We are only too pleased to be able to help with the donation of this equipment”.
Torridon Mountain Rescue covers a large area extending from Achnasheen in the east to Applecross in the west, and from Kinlochewe in the north to Lochcarron in the south. Its volunteer team members get involved in some of the most technically demanding rescues across 17 munros in the region.
The beauty and challenge of the area bring climbers and walkers from all over the world, and many have had good cause to be grateful to the team who go out in the worst of conditions often challenging weather conditions to bring help and often a lifeline to those in need.
James Hotchkis, Highlands for Ukraine volunteer. Picture: Iona MacDonald
Gratefully receiving the stretchers, James, who organised the appeal to all Scotland’s mountain rescue teams said: “There is no doubt this equipment, previously put to good use in the West Highlands, will now help save lives on the front line in Ukraine.
“Highlands for Ukraine charity and our co-ordinator for Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas, Lena Maksimova, regularly work with the White Angels community policing teams and emergency staff who go into the red zones of conflict to evacuate injured civilians following the drone and missile attacks which they suffer practically every night once darkness falls.
James Hotchkis, Nicola Jackson and Vlad Kudriavtsev. Picture: Iona MacDonald
“In Kherson they also rush to the assistance of casualties who have become the targets of so-called ‘human safari’ games where the enemy forces track the most vulnerable – the elderly and infirm, women and children – in the streets during daylight with small drones carrying grenades and drop them on their targets for ‘sport’ and to try to destroy morale.
“They also then wait till emergency services rush to the victims and attack them with explosives also. The United Nations has recorded these actions over a 10-month period from July last year and reported that they have so far killed over 150 Ukrainian civilians in this way in and around Kherson, while leaving hundreds more injured in these vile video-controlled ‘gaming’ attacks.
So, it is clear these MacInnes stretchers will play a vital part in their new rescue role once in eastern Ukraine.”
The stretchers are named after the famous mountaineer known as the “father of modern mountain rescue in Scotland”, the late Hamish MacInnes. He invented the prototype along with other useful mountain safety legacies, including The International Mountain Rescue Handbook, during his many years of service to Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team in Lochaber where he lived for most of his life before he passed in 2020 at the age of 90.
Highlands for Ukraine (www.h4u.uk) collects all types of medical equipment and, along with food, hygiene products and recycled laptops for children who schooled at home or in underground bunkers, send the aid usually on a weekly basis to the areas of eastern Ukraine where it is needed most.
