High rescue for charity

HART (the High Access Rescue Team) based in Glasgow, Scotland, and its main sponsor, Ritchie's Training Centre Ltd is attempting a world abseiling record to support the Help for Heroes charity which supports wounded service men and women coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Heroes Support Heroes event involves teams from the police, fire rescue, ambulance, RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), mountain rescue and a team from each of the armed forces.

Teams will climb 45 m on a tower crane's vertical ladder, walk 45 m along the crane's horizontal jib, then abseil 45 m back to the ground. At the end of the event the various teams will have completed the equivalent of walking, climbing and abseiling the height of Mount Everest.

In total each team member will have to complete this exercise between 60 or 80 times depending on the final decision on team size. With a total of approximately 1680 abseils the teams would break the current record for the longest continuous abseil and any other records within this category and raise funds for Help for Heroes.

The event is logged with the Guinness book of records for late July the organisers hope to raise £1 million.

HART is looking for corporate sponsorship from any company who could assist in meeting its targets. The organisation says, "We realise that many organisations have restricted funds for sponsorship activities. We know that you need to justify your costs, and we feel that we can develop an appropriate strategy to ensure that you receive sufficient PR coverage. For this partnership to work it must be mutually beneficial."

HART is a charitable rescue team providing an urban rescue service to those in difficulty in high and inaccessible areas, such as tower cranes, window cradles or high structures. It can supply tower crane risk assessments and pre rescue plans for tower crane to construction companies.

The team's specialised skills and equipment enable it to reach heights which the emergency services may have problems accessing. It can provide first aid to people while at height in order to stabilise them before bringing them down safely. www.hartrescue.org.uk