A SEARCH and rescue team has received a grant of £10,000 to cover running costs.

Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire is a search and rescue team that is on call 24 hours a day to help support Thames Valley Police to search for vulnerable missing people and support other emergency services across the county.

The search and rescue team has now received a £10,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to go towards their running costs.

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The team is made up purely of volunteers, who are trained to a national professional standard and then vetted by the police.

The initiative is funded entirely by voluntary donations and grants.

Before the pandemic the group raised their running costs from attending and providing safety marshalling services to community events.

Whilst fundraising has been put on hold, the team continue to regularly assist the police search for vulnerable people across the county, ensuring safe and socially distanced operations.

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The grant from the National Lottery Community Fund will contribute towards running costs of five core operational areas.

These include medical costs, costs of search dogs, drones and water and land rescue search.

It will also help fuel the rescue teams fleet of rescue boats and vehicles.

Rebekka Welch, fundraising lead for Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire, said: "As the new fundraising lead for OxSAR "I am delighted on behalf of the team to have received this very generous donation from The National Lottery.

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"This particularly helps us to cover a significant portion of our core costs which, as any charity will tell you, can be some of the most challenging to fund.

"We look forward to another year of supporting our communities."

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