Stranded Pendle Hill walker, 60, saved by dog

9:59pm Monday 21st April 2008

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By Sally Henfield »

A RETIRED property developer has told how a friend's dog saved his life after he fell down a ravine and was left stranded on Pendle Hill.

Bernard Penine, 60, lay trapped at the bottom of a steep gulley for over eight hours after he slipped and fell while walking.

Mr Penine, of Whalley Road, Wilpshire, broke his left leg in two places and was forced to wait in dropping temperatures for help to arrive.

His Yorkshire Terrier Cleo and his friend's Boxer Mandy curled around him to keep him warm.

And a search team which had expertly plotted his tracks eventaully tracked them down shortly before 2am yesterday - alerted by the barks of the two dogs.

He was later told that he had the first signs of hypothermia - and would have struggled to survive the night as temperatures dipped to just above freezing.

He was strapped into a stainless steel stretcher used by mountain rescue teams, and winched into a Seaking helicopter called out through the national rescue centre based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland.

Mr Penine said: "Cleo is 13 and very deaf so she only joined in barking because Mandy started.

"The rescue team were three-quarters of a mile away when she heard them.

"If it had not been for her I don't think anyone would have found me and things could have turned out much worse."

Mr Penine, who moved to Wilpshire from France nearly 40 years ago, set out on his walk at 1pm.

It was as he was making his way back to his car at about 6.30pm that he slipped on a wet footpath.

He said: "My legs went out in front of me and I heard the bone snap.

"It was quite comfy where I landed, with a big rock that was just right for a pillow.

"I knew I would not be able to walk on my leg so I just lay there.

"I tried to phone my friend Pam, who I had borrowed Mandy from. I managed to say 'hello' and then the battery went."

Mr Penine added: "I knew I was there for the night then - there hadn't been anybody else out walking - so I settled myself down.

"At about 10pm I saw helicopters searching over by the reservoir and thought they might come my way, but they didn't."

Pam Barton had alerted the police and a full-scale search was launched involving the Rossendale and Pendle Mountain Rescue team, the police helicopter, and the urban search and rescue team from Lancashire Fire and Rescue.

Mr Penine, who lives alone, said: "Pam knew that I hadn't come home because I hadn't returned Mandy - so if I had just gone out with Cleo no-one would have bothered to come and look for me."

Mr Penine was wearing light walking gear, including a wind proof jacket.

He said: "I was drenched and covered with mud. I was very cold when I was lying still.

"The dogs cuddled against me to give me a bit of warmth."

At 12.30am a member of the mountain rescue team found Mr Penine.

"The dogs had been barking like crazy and then their eyes had been caught in the lamplight," he said.

"As I was right at the bottom they couldn't get to me and they had to call for the RAF helicopter."

A 10-tonne yellow Seaking helicopter was called from the Leconfield base in Yorkshire.

It was used to hover above Mr Penine, while a female member of the crew was winched down to him.

Mr Penine said: "She told me I was frozen but I couldn't feel anything any more.

"I had the first signs of hypothermia. I was wrapped up and put in a stretcher and as they lifted me up I was spinning a lot. I was very grateful to get inside the helicopter."

Mr Penine was finally freed from the ravine at 2.30am and was taken to Royal Preston Hospital. He will now undergo an operation to put a plate in his broken leg.

Andy Simpson, who led the team of volunteers from Rossendale and Pendle Mountain Rescue who found Mr Penine, said: "It was a perfect, textbook rescue.

"We found him two thirds up Pendle Hill on a path on the side of Barley Moor.

"He was about three miles away from his car which was parked at Well Springs.

"We made quite a few assumptions about where and how he would have walked - such as he would be on a path and would have walked from the carpark up the hill - and our assumptions turned out to be correct.

"We had managed to get two Land Rovers up the hill with equipment in them and we had arranged for search dogs, but almost immediately after they were brought to the site, Mr Penine was found by a volunteer."

Mr Penine said: "The rescue team were marvellous, very efficient.

"All the effort they put in was brilliant. I cannot thank them enough."