One team member’s story of injury and recovery
Every day’s a school day! You never think it could happen to you until it does! Having spent thirty years in the mountains and never getting so much as a scratch, the idea that he could injure himself whilst out training with the team never crossed his mind…
From the archive: Mountain Rescue Magazine Issue 97, Summer 2026. Will Close Ash, of the Northumberland National Park team talks about his own experience with the Rescue Benevolent Fund.
We’d had two excellent days in the Cairngorms, putting our new trainees through their paces and were heading off the hill for a final debrief and tea and cake. As a winter mountain leader, it had been my job to go through the basic skills needed to operate in winter conditions and to ensure they had a safe and enjoyable weekend. So far so good!
To this day, don’t know how I slipped. We were almost back at the cars, on a gentle slope downhill. The ground was wet and typically Scottish with lots of heather. I planted my left foot, then my right… but slid forwards. Tried to lift my left to catch up — but it didn’t move. I did a kind of ‘box split’ and heard a ‘snap’. ‘Shit,’ I thought. ‘I’ve broken my leg. And I’m going skiing in three weeks!’
It was only a slip…
I fell over with my left leg doubled under me and landed in the mud. Everyone else assumed I had ‘created’ one last scenario for the trainee. Nothing could be further from the truth! Another team member came up to me, knelt down and whispered in my ear ‘Are you putting this on Will?’ I explained with some expletives that I wasn’t, I really wasn’t!
Other team members caught up. I explained what had happened and that I was worried I’d broken something. Our Remote Rescue Medical Technicians (RRMTs) checked me over. My ankle was swelling, but didn’t seem to be broken, nor was my leg. I decided if I put my boot back on and I could weight-bear, I’d be able to walk back to the car. This seemed infinitely preferable than being rescued by my own team!
Sure enough, with some effort I was able to limp back, get my boots off and drive to the accommodation. Although my ankle was painful, I assumed I’d torn ligaments and I’d be OK.
Back home after a long drive, I hobbled along to my local walk-in centre (no pun intended) for an X-ray. I had indeed torn the ligaments in my ankle, but I’d also fractured my upper fibula — a spiral fracture to be precise.
Sadly, the only advice offered was to rest and accept that I’d be off work for 6-8 weeks. Not knowing what I could or couldn’t do, or how I could help myself get better, was really frustrating.
My teammates were fantastic. With a wealth of medical and physio experience, I was able to get advice and guidance straight away and this helped allay my worries and concerns. Conversations with our team welfare officer and doctor really helped put things into perspective and they answered a lot of my worries. However, my family skiing holiday was clearly off the cards!
It was clear I needed physio but this wouldn’t be available on the NHS…
I remembered a teammate had raised funds for the Rescue Benevolent Fund. I wasn’t sure how or if they could help, but I emailed the secretary (Judy) anyway.
An email came back within an hour and, by the following afternoon, she’d liaised with the trustees who’d agreed to support me by paying for my physiotherapy sessions! My initial screening with a physio was just five days after the accident and therapy began the following week.
With two weeks of physio, I was able to go on holiday — although I couldn’t ski. Without these sessions, I don’t know what I’d have done. They enabled me to get back up and running (literally) within seven weeks of the accident.
The benevolent fund has been amazing…
They’ve handled all the costs (including paying for a strange rubber band that I wear when pottering around the kitchen) and the speed at which they acted was fantastic. Those sessions gave me the confidence to get back on the call-out list to support my team. They also enabled me to take part in my family holiday and to get back into work. All thanks to support I received from benevolent fund.
I would encourage anyone in the mountain and cave rescue family who needs support to reach out to the team at the benevolent fund and if you’ve not found yourself in a positive of need, consider raising funds for them so that when a teammate does need their help, it’s available to them.