Top honour for Mid Wales team after Thai cave rescue

Members of the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team (SMWRCT) played a vital role in the recovery of 12 boys and their coach in the depths of Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province this summer following a three-week ordeal which gripped the world.

With some of the most highly-skilled cave rescuers in the world, the team was drafted in to support an international operation, including military personnel from Thailand, America, Australia and China.

They ended up coordinating a treacherous mission which ultimately saw all members of the Wild Boars soccer team and their assistant coach reunited with their families.

The cavers received a special Platinum Award at this year’s Wales Care Awards in honour of their heroics and were given a standing ovation after it was presented by Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths, who is also the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs.

The national awards, which celebrated their 15th anniversary this year, are organised by social care champions Care Forum Wales.

Two members of the team, Gary Mitchell and Dan Thorne, attended the glittering awards ceremony at City Hall in Cardiff to receive the gong on behalf of the team, which also includes Mike Clayton, from Hampton Loade, near Bridgnorth.

“This is a team award to recognise everyone who played a part in this rescue,” said senior team leader Gary, 43, from Llwynygog, near Staylittle, Powys.

“I’m very privileged to be accepting it on behalf of everyone in the team, and all those involved in the rescue it’s self. It’s great to have our home nation recognition.

“We’re not a very public body and we don’t have a high media profile, we just get on with what we do. We mostly rescue cavers and animals. Cavers know about our services and how to get help but unless there is something major in the news in which we’re drafted in to help with we tend to stay out of the media spotlight.

The drama unfolded in July when the group of young boys and their coach were exploring caves when Monsoon rains caused the passageways to flood, trapping them inside with little food or light for nine days.

Gary, who lives with his partner and two children, a son aged six and a girl aged two, has more than 30 years’ caving experience and has been a member of the SMWCRT for the past 15.

He was at work in his role as Wales Manager for charity Social Farms & Gardens when he received a call asking whether he could be on the next flight to Thailand. The following morning, after he had rearranged a number of work commitments, and discussed the situation with his partner, he was on a plane heading out to the scene.

A team of 10 divers and surface support specialists from the UK, including fellow SMWRCT member John Volanthen and support diver Joshua Bratchley, 27, from Malltraeth, Anglesey, were sent out to help while those remaining in Wales gathered vital equipment including special face masks which were used for the young footballers.

Gary, who is also assistant chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council, said: “It was massively more complicated than anything I’ve ever done before. They were 2.5km below ground and almost 1km of that was completely flooded, there were 13 people to rescue and all non divers!

“All of these factors made for the most extraordinary cave rescue which will probably - and hopefully - ever take place.”