MEMBERS of the Grassington-based Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association have given a whole new meaning to the national Mountain Rescue slogan

"Saving lives in wild and remote places".

For they have just taking part in a very different rescue... going to the aid of four ladies stranded on an isolated Dales road.

The women were returning from a church weekend at Scargill House, near Kettlewell, when they got a flat tyre. None of them could raise a mobile phone signal to call for help.

Group organiser, Cath Wood, from Calverley near Leeds, said: "We were really stranded and, to add to the situation, one of our ladies was just recovering from a hip operation and another was into her 80s."

But their luck changed when the UWFRA control vehicle passed by on its way back from the Buckden Fell Race, and members Stuart and Julie Benson, from Addingham, and Peter Huff, from Threshfield, changed the wheel in no time at all.

Stuart said: "They were lovely ladies and it was just good to see the relief on their faces."