It was another busy year in 2021 for Dorset Search and Rescue (DorSAR), which was called out or put on standby 49 times.

DorSAR is a team of highly trained volunteers who work with the police, coastguards and other emergency services in the search, rescue or recovery of missing people.

Its volunteers spent 1,480 hours on callouts looking for high risk people with a range of vulnerabilities and it cost £23,693 last year to keep DorSAR operational.

Of the 49 times DorSAR was called, two of the missing people had dementia, five had autism, seven had medical vulnerabilities, 11 were despondent and 18 were suicidal.

A map - which can be seen at the top of the page - shows the locations of the callouts and the larger the circle, the more hours the team spent searching.

DorSAR is starting this year with the training of 15 new search technician recruits over the next few months.

During the last year, the team has been supporting a range of events.

A spokesman for DorSAR said: "We've all been actively involved in pulling pines, marshalling marathons and with wandering heroes throughout the past few months and we want to give a huge thanks to all those who took part and all the donations that we received as a result.

"Similarly, we would like to give a huge thanks to our sponsors, including Co-op which has provided huge financial support through its community fund, enabling us to leap forward with a number of technical tools to support our searches.

"We would also like to highlight some more unique sponsorship that we have benefitted from, including fundraising from a local safari supper and Covid-related holiday refunds.

"Again, a huge thank you as all funds go to enabling our search teams to support the vulnerable people who need out services.

"Finally, Dorset Search and Rescue is delighted to receive donations from Osprey, a Poole-based designer and manufacturer of quality outdoors kit."

The spokesman added: "We clearly can't do this without our amazing volunteer searchers, the team that support them behind the scenes and all the Dorset Search and Rescue supporters in the public.

"If you are interested I becoming involved, please get in touch via [email protected]."

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