THE Tavistock section of the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team recently received a very welcome £5,000 grant from the Santander Community-Plus Foundation, for essential life-saving equipment for its recently acquired, second Land Rover ambulance.

The team trains weekly, whatever the weather, to provide the local community and its numerous visitors with round the clock cover should anyone get into trouble on the moors and the surrounding areas.

Callouts are varied, for example, a young male not much older than eight was attending an organised camping trip during the autumn half term, and went missing after lunch on the Friday.

There had been torrential rain and the river adjacent to the site was a raging torrent.

Two Dartmoor Rescue Group teams and a police helicopter began a search, which continued throughout the night.

DSRT Tavistock was called out to take over the search at first light.

The boy's wellingtons were found at the riverside and as no other signs had been found, it was felt that he had probably been swept away into the River Taw the previous day. As lunchtime approached, it was agreed to carry out a final set of sweep searches before ending operations.

As a search party reached the end of their search area, a bare foot was spotted in a plantation of trees, and with much relief, the lad was found alive. He was soaking wet, and as he was dressed in only a jumper and light trousers, was hypothermic having been out in severe weather for 24 hours.

He was stretchered to a helicopter and evacuated to Exeter Hospital where he made a full recovery. If not found when he was, it's unlikely he would have survived.

However, often the team gets called out for various other reasons.

A male in his 20s showed off to his parents by climbing on to the top of a rock stack at Great Staple Tor. He was nervous of making the descent, which worried his mother so much she called for assistance and insisted he remained there until help arrived.

An extremely embarrassed chap was aided to the ground by team members.

The team relies totally on volunteers, who come from all walks of life, and is on call 24 hours a day for any situation.

As mentioned, the team needs to be fully prepared and needs the right equipment and training. The cost of simply being operational is around 20k a year.

More equipment is still needed, however, and while £5,000 was called a 'fantastic 'donation, the team still requires numerous items ranging from as little as £10 for protective gloves, to over £650 for a GPS radio.

Anyone interested in donating can contact Garon Willis, fundraising officer, at [email protected]">[email protected] or if you wish to find out more about the team and what it does, visit http://www.dsrt-tavistock.org.uk">www.dsrt-tavistock.org.uk