An experienced caver who thought he was going to die after he plunged from a 50ft ledge and was trapped 900ft underground for more than 50 hours will join the rescue team which saved his life.
George Linnane said he feels ‘lucky to be alive’ after he was pulled out of the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system beneath the Brecon Beacons by around 250 rescuers from across the UK in November last year.
The 38-year-old from Bristol, who broke his ribs, arm and jaw, now plans on going back underground this year, and will join the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team that lifted him out.
‘One of the things that I love most about caving is the sort of camaraderie and the sense of community that we have, this thing that we do, it creates quite a real kind of tight-knit bond between cavers,’ he told the BBC.
‘So it doesn’t surprise me that they achieved what they achieved, but for 300 people to come to my aid from across the country, all come together to achieve one thing as a team… the single bloody-mindedness of it as well.
‘There was no way they were going to let anything other than a good outcome happen. I take my hat off to them.’
He added: ‘I kept flipping between two states – there was “I’m going to fight this and survive”, which became, “I really don’t care”.
George Linnane said he feels ‘lucky to be alive’ after he was pulled out of the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system beneath the Brecon Beacons by around 250 rescuers from across the UK in November last year
The 38-year-old, who broke his ribs, arm and jaw, now plans on going back underground this year, and will join the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team that lifted him out
‘I kept flipping between two states – there was “I’m going to fight this and survive”, which became, “I really don’t care”’, he told the BBC
Rescue workers operated in shifts, passing the man on the stretcher through the cave system - which is the third longest in the UK
‘The first thing I knew about it was this instantaneous feeling of legs whirling around in mid-air and arms grabbing for something and this kind of feeling that something was happening.
‘But one second I was caving, the next the world had gone mad. And the next it had all gone black, and I woke up in a very different state to when I started.’
He called the pain ‘intense’ and ‘really really not very pleasant at all’.
‘When I woke up I was on a slope of lying on things that hurt, so I knew I couldn’t stay like that for however many hours it was going to take for the help to turn up,’ Mr Linnane said.
‘So I had to move myself, so long story short that involved dragging myself by the tips of my
