Follow us on FacebookAs a voluntary organisation, like all other cave and mountain rescue teams in Britain, MCRO relies on donations, fundraising events and occasional grants for its income.
Maintaining an effective Cave Rescue capability is a challenge and we rely heavily upon the efforts of team members, their caving clubs, friends and relations to rally round and support us. We have also been very fortunate to have a number of commercial organisations support us through the donation of equipment, allowing us access to vertical training facilities, or offering us equipment at reduced rates.
If you feel you would like to support us with a donation, please email the secretary: secretary"at"midlandscaverescue.org.uk (replace the "at" with @)
Thank you
2023
July 15
A big THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard to set up the Grand Auction and Sale at the Gloucester Cave Rescue Group Depot, and to those who donated, bid, bought, ate & drank on the day. It was a fantastic team fundraising effort!
Pictures of just some (!) of the items that were in the auction:
Over £4,000 was raised on the day, with possibly more to come. The funds will be divided between GCRG and MCRO - remaining items with be available at Hidden Earth (the national caving conference) in September to raise funds for the British Cave Rescue Council.
2021
November
MCRO would like to say a massive thanks to people who have recently made donations following the epic rescue from Ogof Ffynnon Ddu in Wales, and we have been particularly touched by the wonderful thoughtfulness and generosity of one young supporter.
Niamh, who lives in Shropshire, raised money for charity over lockdown with her charity plant stall outside her house. She contacted one of our team members to say she had seen the cave rescue we had been part of in the Brecon Beacons and wanted to donate the money she raised to Midlands Cave Rescue Organisation. As a voluntary organisation, it is the kindness and actions like this that allow us to carry on saving people and animals from underground and crags, and supporting land searches.
Midlands Cave Rescue would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Niamh and everyone who bought plants from her stall.
Tristel Disinfectant
Keeping safe during the Covid-19 pandemic is really important for cave rescue teams, protecting our team members and the people we help.
Thanks to a very kind gesture by Tristel who have donated a supply of Tristel Duo surface disinfectant foam to the British Cave Rescue Council for distribution to teams, we have received a batch of the disinfectant for use in our stores.
2020
Thank you to all our supporters for their help over the year. Sadly due to the pandemic this year Annual Dinners and Christmas gatherings have had to be cancelled, so we have missed out on the various festive fund raisers. But you the team members have not let this stop you from raising money for the team in the now customary practice of making a donation to MCRO instead of sending each other Christmas cards. This is very much appreciated and the money raised will go towards funding the replacement of some of our older textile equipment (slings).
Thanks to Josh and Graham we have a healthy supply of Team Buffs for sale at £10 each. This is essential neck wear when the Beast from the East visits our shores again. They can also be worn over another face mask to give an added layer of protection (as demonstrated by Joe).
2019
A BIG “Thank You” to everyone who continue to support the team and make us tick financially as well as practically. Also, thank you to other organisations that support us such as Dudley Caving Club and the Shropshire Caving & Mining Club. Not forgetting BCRC who represent us at national level and have been instrumental in organising the donation of the new gas detectors from Honeywell Analytics and co-ordinating LIBOR funding requests.
Thai Rescue Talks
Mike Clayton and Emma Porter have been doing a stirling job during 2019 giving talks on the Thailand Cave rescue and raising funds for the team.
September Dog Rescue
The grateful owner of the dog that we rescued from mine workings in September made a very generous donation of £500. This is being used to improve our animal rescue equipment in the form of harnesses and other items.
Laptop Donation
Thanks to the efforts of Heather Simpson, she acquired a number of laptops for distribution to cave and mountain rescue teams from an IT company that regularly updates it’s equipment.
We put in a request for one, which was delivered during the summer. It came complete with Windows 10 and LibreOffice, so it has been possible to bring together the various team admin documents such as the stores inventory, inspection records etc.
Wolf Safety lamps, 100 Years 1912 - 2012
Chatting to the lady on the Wolf Safety Lamp stand at the Emergency Services Show in September she produced a beautifully illustrated book covering the products and history of the Wolf Safety Lamp Company of Sheffield.
She very kindly donated a copy to the team to be used to help raise funds. (It was auctioned at the January 2020 training session)
Honeywell Analytics Gas Detector Donation
Our QRAE gas detectors were reaching the point where the sensors had started failing (one had already been taken out of service) and the other was on borrowed time. So it was welcome news to hear of the very generous donation by Honeywell Analytics of portable gas detectors to all 15 UK Cave/Mine Rescue Teams.
A big THANK YOU to Honeywell Analytics, Peter Barratt (Key Account Manager, Honeywell Analytics, Middlewich, Cheshire) and Joe Exon (Zone Manager, Poole, Dorset) for such a generous donation, also to Pete Dell, Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation, who made the arrangements with Peter Barratt prior to this important donation.
2018
Wealden Donation
In November an SCMC led trip to the 40 yard level in Snailbeach mine for some members from Wealden resulted in a donation of £50 to MCRO.
Dog Rescue Donation
In November we received a cheque to the value of £100 which was the result of our joint rescue of Bill the collie back in August, one loved and valued working doggie! (see the 2018 events page)
Ivor Brown Memorial Day
In October the highly successful Ivor Brown memorial day organised by the Shropshire Caving & Mining Club and Friends of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, concluded with two colliery plates being auctioned off. They attracted a generous bidding war which resulted in a donation of £60.
Of the two plates, the one depicting the NCB Barnsley area went for £25, while the other featuring Granville Colliery (the last deep mine in Shropshire, which closed in 1979) raised an impressive £35.
SCMC Annual Dinner, 27th Oct.
On the evening of the Ivor Brown Memorial day members and guests at the Shropshire Caving & Mining Club annual dinner raised £130 for MCRO through their sealed envelope raffle. Once again we missed the bottles of ‘Mole Juice’ this year as John ‘Mole’ Hine was unable to attend, SCMC members made up the difference by providing a wide range of prizes. Almost everyone managed to win something - some even getting 2 or 3 winning tickets with the unlucky ones winning their own donations!
Summer Fire Station Open Days
The fire station open day in August at Shrewsbury raised £17 (plus some Swiss francs from a little girl who presumably was from Switzerland!) in the rattle tins - not much but the aim was really to raise our profile.
The tube and ‘squeeze box’ combo were a big hit with the kids. The addition of the ‘ends’ to the tubes and stickers from Dea really boosted their appearance. We’ll have to think of something more “complex” for 2019!
Defibrillator Donation
During the bad weather at the start of 2018 team members with 4x4s provided help in transporting first responders and other health workers in the Alveley area.
As a result of this help, Alveley first responders have donated a defibrillator to the team. Due to the Thailand rescue follow-up work the official presentation of the device has not happened yet. However, this should happen later in the year. There are also plans for them doing some training with us.
VARTA Items and Books
Throughout the year various sales of Varta items and donated books has raised £118.54. There are still plenty of secondhand books left - you know you want them!
Dudley Caving Club Xmas 2017
In January DCC passed on a donation of £45 raised from donations in lieu of sending Christmas cards to each other.
We would also like to Thank
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Honeywell Analytics - for the donation of two Gas Alert MicroClip X3 gas detectors. |
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Arco Professional Safety Services training centre, Eccleshall (formerly Total Access) for the use of their excellent vertical access training facilities, equipment and continued support. |
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Varta (Consumer) - for the donation of Outdoor Sports headlights, LED torches & Indestructible PowerPacks. |
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SARCOMM - for radio 'reprogramming' services. |
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Crowcon Detection Instruments - for the donation of an Oxygen meter. |
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Wolf Mountain Indoor Climbing and Caving Centre - for the use of their meeting room. |
- The family and friends of the late Peter Owen, who's generous donations enabled us to purchase the original team Heyphones (through rock radios).
- The late Malcom Newton for all the paintings and drawings donated over the years to raffles and auctions to help raise funds.
