News

Today, Isle of Wight Search and Rescue celebrates 15 years of service to our Island community. What began with a small Hampshire Search and Rescue initial response team of just six volunteers on the Island led to the establishment of WightSAR by Dean Terrett BEM on 3 November 2011, creating a dedicated local search and rescue capability for the Isle of Wight. Over the past 15 years, our volunteers have been available 24/7, 365 days a year, supporting Hampshire & Isle of Wight

Help us have a share of the Co-op Local Community Fund £3.5 million ! We are delighted to announce that WightSAR is now a chosen charity for the Co-op Local Community Fund 2026 - 2027. Please download the Co-op App, become a member and choose our cause, so we can receive a share of £3.5m. It costs just £1 to join and the more Co-op members who choose WightSAR as their cause, the more funds we will receive. See our unique cause page via the link below. Choose WightSAR as yo

Last weekend, our Chairman and Equipment Officer attended the Lowland Rescue AGM and Conference at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire. This meeting brings together Lowland Rescue member teams from across the country, not just to conduct the official business of the organisation, but also to experience a weekend of workshops, presentations and talks from experts in many fields, and, importantly, to offer an opportunity to network with our mainland colleagues. It is also a chan

A BIG WightSAR thank you to The Griffin Godshill and the Godshill Community Charity Quizzers who raised an amazing £273 towards our operational costs at the Charity Quiz on Wednesday 7th Oct. Community support like this makes a real difference to small, local charities like ours. We had a great night joining in the quiz, selling raffle tickets and meeting the quiz team. Thank you Andy for all your support. The Griffin Godshill holds a Charity quiz twice a month in support o

A new state-of-the-art drone is already helping search and rescue group WightSAR save lives and protect property across the Island. The drone, which was funded by a £12,000 grant from Island Roads’ Isle of Wight Foundation, has been deployed in a number of incidents in recent months, including July’s Headon Warren fire and another major blaze at an industrial site in Ryde. It has also been used in searches for missing vulnerable people on the Island. The DJI Matrice 4TDdrone

This week we have been supporting Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service during the major wildfire at Headon Warren. For over 30 hours, WightSAR volunteers provided continuous operational support alongside partner agencies during one of the Island’s most significant wildfire incidents in recent years. Tasked with delivering specialist aerial capability, our Drone Team and Incident Support Team operated across challenging and remote terrain, supplying live aerial

We popped into the delightful Love Running Tuesday Nighters recently to say a big thank you for their recent donation to our 100% volunteer team. Fair to say our two trainee Search Dogs, Maali and Ginny, proved the most popular ! 🐕‍🦺 Running events, a Quiz night and the Love Running Tuesday Nighters run collection was just some of the highlights. A very special thanks to: • Rachel 53 @ 53 – Rachel completed the Manchester Marathon and a week later the London Marathon in her

We have an extra special fundraising event next month being undertaken by a very brave WightSAR supporter. In April, in her 53rd year, Rachel will be running two marathons in one week! 53 at 53 to fundraise for WightSAR. 🏃‍♀️ The Manchester Marathon on 19th April, followed by the London Marathon on 26th April! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ A total of 53 miles at the age of 53. Please visit Rachel’s fundraising page for full details and how to support her to raise vital operational funds for

If you are shopping in store this weekend, keep popping those green tokens into our slot! We still need all the Green Token support we can get! We promise to put our winnings to very good use towards our life saving volunteer role in searching for high risk, vulnerable missing people across the Isle of Wight. Please vote for Isle of Wight Search and Rescue (WightSAR) when you shop in store to help us replace vital, lifesaving equipment used in our missing person searches. O