Our Team, the South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team is a Search & Rescue Team comprised of cavers who are all volunteers, and are called out to assist in a broad spectrum of incidents that are sometimes remotely connected to the Team’s core purpose of providing an efficient rescue service for injured or lost cavers.

We assist the Police and Mountain Rescue Services wherever searches are needed to find missing people in areas where caves, abandoned mines or other underground structures exist in a  huge area including south, west, east and mid Wales up to the boundary of the Snowdonia National Park. We have also been called out frequently to rescue dogs and farm livestock which have fallen into caves, or rifts in the ground caused by old, historic mining activity.

Our track record in responding to all the incidents we are called out to is excellent, and notable incidents Team members have been involved in, include the Gleision Colliery disaster, the search for April Jones, extended surface searches for missing vulnerable people, and the internationally reported rescue of a young football team and their coach from the flooded Tham Luang cave in Thailand where our Team’s cave divers and senior controllers were instrumental in effecting this high risk, highly technical and ultimately extremely successful rescue.

Our Team needs to be equipped and trained to respond to all the incidents we are called out to and we do not receive any grant aid from Government. Instead, we rely upon the donations, generously made by the public, to pay for specialist training and to buy equipment like radios, stretchers, ropes and associated hardware needed to safely rescue people and animals, and to maintain the safety of our volunteer Team members.

The Covid19 pandemic that started in March 2020 severely affected our income from donation boxes placed in shops and pubs and other Team fundraising activities likewise suffered. The Team continued to be called out during the pandemic to assist in searches for missing people, and to rescue missing dogs and livestock.

The SMWCRT urgently needs donations to enable us to continue operating efficiently on a day to day basis, and whilst there is a generous donation to be given to the Team from the estate of the late Helen Farr who was a cave diver and passionate in her support for Cave Rescue, it is expected that it will take some considerable time for the solicitors to conclude dealing with Helen’s estate. It is the Team’s intention to use whatever money we receive from Helen’s estate to purchase something major to acknowledge and commemorate her incredible generosity to us. In the meantime we still need to raise income to maintain our day to day operational needs. If you are able to, please help by donating money to the Team, by using the Donate button at the top of this page, or on our Facebook page. Anything donated to the Team will help us immeasurably!

Diolch yn Fawr, Many Thanks.