Walk of thanks for Glencoe Mountain Rescue
A young man whose life was saved by the Glencoe Mountain Rescue after he had a seizure in the area’s Lost Valley has embarked on a coast-to-coast walking challenge to pay tribute to the team.
Dundonian Ryan Dunn, 22, is walking 196 miles from Mallaig to St Cyrus as part of The Great Outdoors Challenge, an event which invites people to backpack and wild camp across Scotland.
His efforts, from May 10-23, will raise money for the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team and Scottish Mountain Rescue, the volunteer organisations without which he would not be here today.
Ryan has no recollection of the moment he had an epileptic seizure - the first of his life - whilst walking with his twin brother Kian and a friend in April 2021.
However he knows that it was the quick actions of others that avoided tragedy in the hills.
First, without a phone signal, Kian ran down the mountain to the Three Sisters car park to raise help. Then, having just finished another call out, the Glencoe team was able to get a helicopter to Ryan, transferring him to Fort William’s Belford Hospital.
Placed on life support as doctors were unable to control his seizures, Ryan was later moved to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. In total, he would spend around a week in hospital.
“It was touch and go. I was in a critical condition,” said Ryan, who will be joined by Kian for the Fort William to Braemar portion of his walk.
Stressing his thanks to those who saved him, the dramatic day also gave the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership worker admiration for a service he had barely considered previously.
“I didn’t realise it was a charity until I received the help from them. I was totally taken aback in that regard,” Ryan added.
“After that day, I hold great respect and admiration in terms of the work that they do as volunteers, risking their lives and their free time to help others in the hills. I definitely have great admiration and respect for those that do it.”
That admiration and appreciation is also felt by Ryan’s family, some of whom will meet him and Kian in Braemar.
Ryan’s grandfather, Alex Dunn, said that the family was eternally thankful for the Glencoe team who answered the call that day.
“The team that rescued him, we’ll be forever grateful for that. We know what the outcome would have been had that service not been available.
“To his brother Kian as well, for running down the mountain to get a signal, that must have been really frightening,” Alex said.
“We are just grateful that he survived it. I don’t think many people give the mountain rescue services any thought, other than folk that maybe use the mountains or go out to the great outdoors, but we are very, very lucky to have organisations that are risking their lives in all weathers to rescue people and save lives off the mountains.
“We are very fortunate.”
Anyone wishing to donate to Ryan’s The Great Outdoors Challenge can do so via his ‘Ryan’s fundraiser for Scottish Mountain Rescue’ Justgiving page.
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