At 0900hours on Wednesday the 6th January 2010 the Team along with North of Tyne SRT, were requested by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS ) to assist due to the ongoing bad weather which has affected the North East. The Team despatched 2 Land Rover Defender 4x4 ambulances with team medical staff to various locations throughout the north to assist frontline ambulance crews in the transfer of patients and staff, the recovery of stranded NEAS vehicles and to respond to calls alongside NEAS crews. This assistance continues.

So far the Team has provided regular cover to NEAS and will continue to do so until the weather conditions improve and NEAS stand the team down. Our volunteer crews have been working up to fourteen hour days and have remained on standby throughout the night. The Team has been asked to assist crews with urgent and non-urgent calls in areas including Berwick, Alnwick, North Shields, Dudley, Bedlington, Ashington, Morpeth and Hexham. One crew was requested to transfer a patient from Berwick to Borders General Hospital in Melrose. A total of 25 missions were carried out.
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Ploughing a boundary road of the National Park at Elilaw above Netherton at the crack of dawn this week. This picture gives you an idea of just how deep the snow is in the remote hills and valleys of the Cheviot Hills.
National Park Rangers urged visitors not to attempt to get into the hills while the cold weather remains as there is little access and no car parking or facilities.

Six team members transported food and medical supplies to a remote farmhouse in the Cheviots. The occupants included a young baby. They had been cut-off for several days, and supplies were running low. The members left their vehicles at Alwinton. They walked 6 miles to the farmhouse through deep snow, and then 6 miles back again. Click image to enlarge.

The Team leader was contacted at 0600 by the Northumbria Police, in connection with a 40 year old male who had walked out of an hotel in Otterburn at 0130, following a domestic dispute. He was reported as lost, and ill-equipped for the bad weather. As the team were starting to search, further investigation revealed that the missing person had absconded from prison in 1996, and he been wanted by the police ever since. Acting on information received, the police attended a house in Newcastle, where he was located and arrested. The Team was stood down at 0840.
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The Team was contacted at 0115 by the Northumbria Police about a female walker with a suspected broken ankle on Brough Law, in the Ingram Valley. She was one of a group of people doing a night walk. Conditions underfoot were difficult, and she had slipped on the icy ground. She was eventually lifted off by a Sea King from RAF Boulmer and taken to hospital by ambulance. The members of the group who had stayed with her were walked off the hill.

The Team was contacted at 2215 by the Northumbria Police in connection with a patient who was missing from St George's Hospital, Morpeth. The Team searched the hospital grounds without success. The patient returned to the hospital the following morning, having spent the night at an undisclosed location.

On Friday May 14th the team assisted in the search around Howick for a missing 74 year old from the Alnwick area. As well as two mountain rescue teams, the search involved the Northumbria Police helicopter, a police dive team and coast guards. The missing person was eventually located by the police dive team near Cullernose Point.

The Team were contacted by the Northumbria Police at 0400 on Monday 17th May in connection with a patient who had been seen running away from an accommodation block at Prudhoe Hospital. The patient returned to the hospital at 0700 as the hospital grounds were being searched and the team stood down.

The Team was contacted by the Northumbria Police at 0135 in connection with a person who had been reported missing. Their car had been located in Wooler. They were regular visitors to the town, and were known to be familiar with the local walks. The team were involved in an overnight search of paths and tracks in the area around the town. The missing person was found safe and well at 0600.

At 0430 on Friday 30th July 2010 the Team were asked by Northumbria Police to search the eastern half of Slaley Forest, as part of the search effort to locate a 78 year old local man. He had not been seen since the previous afternoon. Police vehicles and the police helicopter had already been deployed. As Team members were starting to search through the forest, the missing person was found safe and well near Slaley Hall.

At 1900 hours the team was contacted by Northumbria Police in connection with a visitor to Cragside House. This person had been seen in the house at 1510 hours but had not returned to the coach on which he was travelling in time for its scheduled departure. The coach party was on a tour of Britain, and was due to leave Cragside at 1515 to travel to Edinburgh. There was some concern because very little was known about this person ... he was in his sixties, was not a UK national, was a solo traveller and had only recently arrived in the UK. The house and grounds were searched by National Trust staff, and then by police. Then the Team was called out. Team members had started searching the grounds when it was reported that the missing person had arrived at his hotel in Edinburgh, having made his own way there from Cragside. He was unaware of the fact that his action had precipitated a large scale search.