The harsh winter put great demands on Scottish mountain rescue teams

Shoppers at four Scottish outdoors stores have helped raise £10,000 for mountain rescuers.

The cash was handed over today to representatives of Scottish Mountain Rescue at the Cairngorm team’s base near Aviemore.

The boost to rescue teams’ coffers came from the sale of supporter badges in four GO Outdoors shops in just 12 weeks.

Jeff Fagan, retail director with GO Outdoors who made the presentation said: “We support mountain rescue across the United Kingdom and are extremely pleased to develop our relationship with Scottish Mountain Rescue, who do such a great job across the whole of Scotland.

“We hope that this is the first of many such presentations.”

Andy Rockall, project manager for Scottish Mountain Rescue said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this support from GO Outdoors.

“To raise £10,000 in 12 weeks by the sale of badges in just four stores is amazing.

“That customers are willing to support us in this way indicates the respect and support for the 1,000 mountain rescue volunteers in Scotland.

“We thank GO Outdoors and everybody who bought a badge.”

Willie Anderson, leader of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, who hosted the presentation, added: “This winter has been hard in the Scottish mountains with many teams, including Cairngorm very busy dealing with a wide variety of incidents.

“We were very pleased when GO Outdoors started selling Scottish Mountain Rescue supporter badges and delighted to see the results of that today.”

GO Outdoors’ four Scottish shops are at Clydebank, Coatbridge, Edinburgh and Inverness. The badges were on sale for £1 at the stores.

The company was founded in Sheffield 40 years ago and now has stores across the UK.

About 1,000 skilled volunteers belong to Mountain Rescue in Scotland in 27 rescue teams that cover the whole of the nation.

There are also three police and two RAF teams.