Friend held trapped caver's hand while rescuers toiled to save him
ÂŁ10,000 was being raised for the rescue team in the meantime
Last updated 11th Nov 2021
A friend of the man who was trapped in a cave in Wales for 54 hours says she held his hand as rescuers tried to save him.
38-year-old George Linnane fell down a shaft on Saturday after his footing gave way when caving in the Brecon Beacons, the UK's deepest cave system.
He suffered back, leg and facial injuries and became trapped in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave, before a rescue team of around 300 cavers were able to successfully bring him out.
ÂŁ10,000 was raised for the rescue teams during their mission to save him, in what eventually became the longest stretcher carry in British cave rescue history.
An emotional moment
One member of that rescue team was Mr Linnane's friend, Maxine Bateman, who described the emotional moment the rescue group found him on Sunday morning.
"It took about an hour for us to reach where the rescue had got to so far," Ms Bateman said.
"When I first saw George I was really, really upset. It made me feel quite sick to my stomach to think a friend of mine had had an accident.
"I held his hand, stroked his fingers and he gave me a squeeze of his hand back. It was nice to feel that from him. I felt that was him telling me 'I'm OK'.
"Just to be able to give him that level of comfort, I'd say it was intimate, but it was more like I'm here for you.
"You never know who it might be. It could be me. You always hope it would never be a big enough rescue to need as many as George did. But in this case it did need a lot of us and a lot of us turned up and we were there for him."
'For every hour you cave it takes about 10 hours to rescue'
Ms Bateman said rescuers navigated tight passages, large boulders and difficult terrain, all while carrying a badly injured person.
"For every hour you cave yourself it takes about 10 hours to rescue you," she said.
Images posted on social media by the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team (SMWCRT) after Mr Linnane had been rescued showed how difficult and dangerous the extraction was.
He can be seen being passed along a human chain of rescuers, through waterfalls, narrow tunnels and sheer drops.
There's been a massive outpour of support for the rescuers, with a number of fundraising pages being set up for the SMWCRT, who are based in Penwyllt in the Swansea Valley.
Sally Linnane-Hemmens, the injured caver's mother, has thanked the rescuers' efforts on social media.
She said: "It's been a horrendous time.
"These guys, along with several other cave rescue teams from across the UK, saved my son's life today.
"They are all volunteers and need every penny".
George Linnane is being treated in the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff and is said to be doing "remarkably well".