8:45am Saturday 29th December 2007
By Rob Devey
BOLTON Mountain Rescue team leader Garry Rhodes has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year's honours list.
Mr Rhodes, aged 50, who lives in Tyldesley, with his partner Ann, and her son Luke, said he was "honoured, proud and privileged".
"I got the letter from Downing Street completely out the blue," he said.
"You get people saying 'people like you should get awards' but I can't believe this is happening.
"There are about 4,000 volunteers involved in mountain rescue throughout the country but only a tiny handful have got this award and it is completely unique for this team.
"I work with a tremendous group of people and get great support from Ann and Luke."
Mr Rhodes, who also works full time as a chartered landscape architect employed by Rochdale Council, said call-outs often left him with little spare time.
He said: "The ethos of doing something for nothing seems to be becoming eroded now but I enjoy doing this.
"It is rewarding finding people and helping people and there are mostly happy endings but on occasion I have had to break bad news to families which it is not very nice."
Mr Rhodes, who first joined the team in 1974, has attended more than 900 incidents. But he said the one which stood out in his mind was a helicopter crash on Brinscall Moor near Chorley in February 2000.
He was part of the first ground rescue team to reach the scene only to discover the three people on board had died.
"It was the first time I had seen the aftermath of a plane crash and it was horrible," he said.
Mr Rhodes told of a more lighhearted moment when team members were at a Roman-themed fancy dress party when they received a call-out to a man who was injured after falling in the River Croal.
They had to dash to the scene still wearing togas beneath their waterproofs and make-up.
"Goodness knows what the other emergency services thought," he said.
Mr Rhodes has kept a log of all incidents, training and donations since 1980 and plans to use it to write a history of Bolton Mountain Rescue when he retires as a landscape architect.
He said his investiture ceremony, which is likely to take place in four or five months at Buckingham Palace, would be a "very emotional" occasion.
He has previously received the Bolton Civic Medal, the Queen's Golden Jubille Medal for emergency service workers and a Bolton Evening News "Special People Award".
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