You won't find a better bunch (From Bournemouth Echo)

You won't find a better bunch

9:00am Saturday 10th January 2009 in Search By Andy Martin

IT is not something that I have experienced personally, but I have no doubt it must be one of the worst feelings in the world when a loved-one goes missing.

For the family of the distressed man who disappeared for a few hours from his Canford Heath home on Thursday night (January 8), thankfully the agony was relatively shortlived.

On a bitterly cold evening, the 52-year-old husband and father was found after a few hours on the heath, thanks to the quick and thorough work of the emergency services and volunteers from Dorset Search and Rescue (Dorsar) and Dorset Search Dogs.

It was, as Inspector Adrian King says in a report in the Daily Echo, an excellent piece of co-operation.

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The police and their PCSO colleagues are of course paid for being out in the freezing weather, though that is not to diminish their hard work and professionalism.

But the volunteers from Dorsar and DSD are people who give up their time to train and search for missing people across the county. They are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and their efforts can often be a matter of life or death.

If he is not already, the Canford Heath man will hopefully soon be out of hospital and back where he belongs.

His family will be so grateful for that.

And we should all be grateful for the work of the volunteers, now and in the future.

Because for many different reasons, there but for the grace of God go any one of us.

For further information see dorsar.org.uk or telephone 01305 813825 or dorsetsearchdogs.org.uk.