Rescuers form a guard of honour as Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team leader Alex Day and member Rachel Smith leave Todmorden Unitarian Church after their wedding

Rescuers form a guard of honour as Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team leader Alex Day and member Rachel Smith leave Todmorden Unitarian Church after their wedding

A rescue team member made a dramatic entrance at a Pennine venue when he arrived by sliding down a zip-wire.

Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team leader Alex Day made the high-wire entry at Todmorden Unitarian Church for his marriage to Rachel Smith.

Rachel, known as Babs to colleagues, is also a member of the team and she and her bridesmaids arrived at the church in the Calder Valley Land Rover ambulances.

The newlyweds made their exit after the ceremony through a guard of honour of rescuers wielding ice axes and walking poles, with representatives from their own Mytholmroyd-based team, Oldham and the Dublin and Wicklow teams outside the church.

Mr Day is a paramedic with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and his wife works for a mountain bike company.

Following their wedding on Friday, the couple were both driven to their reception at Rishworth in one of the team’s Land Rovers. They are honeymooning in Northumberland.

Rachel and Alex leave their wedding in a team Land Rover

Rachel and Alex leave their wedding in a team Land Rover

The previous evening, team members were in more familiar action with the rescue of a badly injured woman from a quarry at Norland Moor above Sowerby Bridge.

Assistant leader Wayne Ogden said: “Due to the serious nature of potential injuries a helicopter from RAF Leconfield was called to winch the casualty from the quarry and take her to hospital.

“The lady, a 46-year-old who lived locally in Greetland was later confirmed as having a spinal fracture.”

In a busy weekend, the team was also called to Eaves Wood in Hebden Bridge on Saturday about 4.45pm to aid a nine-year-old local boy who had fallen from a tree swing and suffered a suspected broken leg. Mr Ogden said: “He was treated by team members and ambulance staff before being stretchered from the woods to the ambulance for transfer to hospital.”

And at 10am this morning, Monday, the Calder Valley team was called to rescue a driver who had landed in a moorland ravine after his car left the A58 Halifax to Rochdale road. The team joined members of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and ambulance staff at the site near Baitings Reservoir.

Calder Valley SRT members work with fire and rescue and ambulance staff at the Baitings Reservoir incident

Calder Valley SRT members work with fire and rescue and ambulance staff at the Baitings Reservoir incident

The man had to be brought 50m up the steep hillside to a waiting ambulance.

Mr Ogden added: “In addition CVSRT search dog Nell and her handler Dave Warden swept the surrounding moorland in case any other casualties had been in the car.

“Police are still investigating the circumstances of the accident and whether there was a possibility that the car and driver had been undiscovered for a number of hours as the vehicle was not visible from the road.”

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