The Impact and Importance of Surrey Search Rescue Teams!

Happy Tyger
Oct 11
2 min read

Updated: Oct 23

Surrey Search & Rescue is your local Lowland Rescue emergency service available 24 hours a day - every day - in all weathers, to look for, find and rescue high risk, vulnerable missing people.

Presented by Rosie Jordan who was hosted by Rotarian Alan Piddington

Rosie Jordan

These include people suffering with dementia, feeling despondent or suicidal, disorientated or just lost. The Police call the team out 80-100 times a year. It also assists Police and the Fire Service in water rescue and floods. SurreySAR started in August 2010 with 10 volunteers from other Home Counties, a tent and a 25-year-old Land Rover Defender with a trailer. It’s now much bigger with 80+ members and several vehicles, drones, boats, search dogs and much other medical and technical equipment.

All team members are, and remain, highly trained Search Technicians. Some go on to train their dogs to search, others may join the *DEFRA-qualified water rescue section – or the latest *CAA-approved drone crew. While all team members have good First Aid training, many are further qualified in First Response Emergency Care and carry advanced medical

equipment on their searches.

Though all members are volunteers who provide much of their own kit and claim no expenses, some uniform items and radios are provided. Aside from that, it costs a considerable amount - £40k pa- to run the team so it appears at fundraising shows and events, provides talks, applies for sponsorships, rattles tins ... any honest endeavour considered! To find out more, visit www.surreysar.org.uk; you’ll find our regularly updated social media links there, too.