The Old Man of Coniston provides much of the team's work

A fellwalking broadcaster has been appointed patron of a Lake District rescue team.

Stuart Maconie, who completed a round of the 214 wainwrights last year, will head the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team. The BBC radio presenter is also a member of the Wainwright Society.

The Coniston team announced the broadcaster’s role today and said it hoped his influence would boost its profile as it launches an appeal to replace its fleet of Land Rovers, including a veteran vehicle 22 years old.

Mr Maconie, who was born near Prescot on Merseyside, said: “I am delighted and flattered to have been asked to become patron of the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team. I spend as much time as I can in Cumbria these days and regard myself as an adopted Cumbrian. But my roots are in Lancashire, and the Old Man of Coniston was once a Lancashire lad like me, so I feel a special kinship for Coniston and the old Furness Fells.”

The 48-year-old, who presents the Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music and has a Radio 2 evening show, continued: “Everyone who loves the hills and high places respects and admires the tireless and entirely voluntary work these teams put in, and I am proud to be associated with them. I hope I never need their help, though – except perhaps for carrying a few pints back from the bar of one of the pubs in the village.”

The team which covers a large area from Little Langdale in the North to Beacon Tarn in the South and from the west bank of Windermere to Dow Crag. Its area contains the Old Man of Coniston – formerly the highest point in Lancashire – and Wetherlam together with Dow Crag. It costs about £25,000 a year to run.