Name: Sophie MacLeod-Whitehouse

Call Sign? Whiskey 21

Crew Role: Mountain Rescue Casualty Carer

Joined SARA: March 2014

I joined SARA Wyre Forest Rescue station in March 2014 and 2020 will be my 6th on the team. I joined SARA to become part of a team and to learn skills to enable me to help people. I enjoy being able to work with other SARA stations and external organisations on multi-agency callouts. I have also had the opportunity to have been involved in some significant callout in 2019, where SARA were able to save a life of an elderly lady after 4 days exposed to the elements where I was the Lead Casualty Carer. In December 2019 I was awarded the Wyre Forest Station Chairmans Award at the Christmas Social. As a result of all the time and effort we spend training it is extremely rewarding to put this training into practice in an emergency situation outside the classroom.

Hardest parts about SARA:

My hardest time in SARA will have to have been on a recent callout. I was involved in helping to recover a deceased missing person; this is one the toughest sides of being in a Search and Rescue team. Following this type of callout, I found it was a tough time for me to adjust back into my normal routine of everyday life. Even though it was a tough and challenging callout, I have remained positive and motivated to carry on with SARA as many callouts have positive outcomes. Unfortunately, dealing with the result of tragic callout is one of the hardest parts of the role. There are some aspects of search and rescue and SARA that will have a lasting effect on you for the rest of your life, but with the support that we have in place, and the crew that we have on our stations, we are all able to chat and share feeling, challenges and experiences when time get tough.