Congratulations to one of the former Team Leaders of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team who has been awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in the New Years Honours list for services to Mountain Rescue in Lancashire.

Kevin Camplin joined BPMRT in 2002 and was the Team Leader between 2014 and 2023. He has previously held committee posts as the Team’s Training Officer for 2 years, and Deputy Team Leader for 3 years. Since stepping down as Team Leader, Kev has continued to play a leadership role working as the Mid Pennine Search and Rescue Organisation Operational Lead. Kev said “it is an unexpected honour to be awarded an MBE. It is as member of a team, alongside others, that provides all the support and delivery that means we can carry out our search and rescue activities within our communities”.

Kev has given his time as a team member and provided leadership of the Team through some significant incidents. He participated in the teams involvement for the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers tragedy in 2004. He was one of the Incident Controllers for the mountain rescue teams’ involvement at the Greyrigg train crash in 2007, during the floods in Lancashire in December 2015 for Storm Desmond and Storm Frank, some high profile searches such as for Katie Kenyon in 2022, as well as numerous other incidents where the team has helped to rescue injured or missing members of the public in our area.

Rob, the current Team Leader, said “on behalf of myself and the rest of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team, I would like to congratulate Kev on being awarded this honour. Membership of a Mountain Rescue Team is entirely voluntary, and it is no small undertaking to give the commitment needed as a team member and as a Team Leader for so long. Well done, Kev”.