Helen Sheard who sings with Bob in Commoners Choir, organises talks for the Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team. I offered to give them a talk on walking and last month, she took me up on it.
Holme Valley MRT is a volunteer-based search and rescue team based in Marsden, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The team has 60 members who are on call to assist those in difficulty, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the weather – plus a number who are non-qualified trainees, helpers and support members.
The team covers an area of over 1,000 square kilometres of diverse terrain, ranging from rugged open moorland and crags to rural and semi-urban areas, and varying in altitude between 7m and nearly 600m above sea level. This area of operations roughly comprises the southern half of West Yorkshire, and the team operates under the auspices of West Yorkshire Police. Last year they attended 63 incidents, 23 of these being call outs for ‘high risk’ missing persons.
My talk was proceeded by a talk from the Police chaplain, who was offering councelling to the team and a motivational talk about goal setting (have your end in sight before you start….you don’t want to get to the top of the ladder to find it’s been placed against the wrong wall!).
My talk ‘Walking: how we do it and why it’s good for you’ covered the anatomy that allows us to walk on 2 legs, the physics behind how we walk, and some of the research that says how good it is for you (someone who walks 25 minutes a day will live 4 years longer than someone who doesn’t, and be in better health for the last 10 years of their life). It finished with a round up of common foot and ankle issues we see in clinic and a lively Q+A.
It went down well and I was awarded a Holme Valley MRT water bottle as a thank you. If you would like to know more about the mountain rescue team or helps support their amazing work, pop along to their website which is https://holmevalleymrt.org.uk/
If you would like a lecture for your organisation on something foot related, let us know.
Bob Longworth, MSc DPodM