A MOUNTAIN rescue team have received a generous donation of thousands of pounds from an elderly woman they rescued in severe weather conditions.

Members of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) helped rescue the 86-year-old woman from a house in Walton-Le-Dale, Preston during the cold and snowy winter of 2010.

Mountaineers used a Land Rover ambulance to take the late Joyce Dewhirst to Royal Preston Hospital after she had taken a fall at her home.

It was one of a number of call-outs for assistance made by the rescue team to help the North West Ambulance Service who were finding it difficult to reach patients in rural and urban areas due to the adverse driving conditions.

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Now the rescue team, who cover areas including Darwen Moor, have cause for celebration after receiving a cheque of £38,689.45, which follows generous bequests made by Ms Dewhirst to several charities.

Ms Dewhirst died at the age of 93 and had made the bequests after remembering the rescue made by member of the mountain rescue team.

Kevin Camplin, team leader and head of operations at Bowland Pennine MRT, said: "The cheque was recently presented by Mike and Judy Beeston, good friends and the executors of the late Joyce Dewhirst to the Committee Members of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team. The Chairman, Mr Tim Cox thanked Mike and Judy for bringing in the cheque personally and explaining the full story.

Joyce’s generous bequest will have far reaching and on-going benefits for the future patients within the community that the Rescue Team are involved with, including vehicles, medical equipment and Team training benefitting."