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Mountain man Mike lands MBE in Birthday honours.
SELLAFIELD development control manager Mike Park has been awarded the MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
Mike’s award comes in recognition of 28 years of dedicated service with the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team – the last four as team leader.
During that time he has attended thousands of call outs, with recent jobs including responding to the Cumbria floods, the Keswick bus crash and the Cumbria shootings, as well as rescuing tourists and travellers from the county’s fells.
“I think the reward is recognition for the whole team, and not just me,” said Mike, humbly.
“I don’t think I’m any more special than any of them – everyone deserves to be honoured because it is a tough job which is getting tougher, with all the cuts in emergency services, we can get called out for all kinds of things.
“This award is a wonderful thing to receive, but it doesn’t beat the look on someone’s face when you help them out, and that is why we do it. Only this weekend there was a woman who’d fallen and hurt her knee, and the relief she expressed when we rescued her is the greatest reward of all, to be able to help someone like that.”
Mike said that his work with the Mountain Rescue team would be impossible without an understanding boss and the support of his colleagues.
“The company, has always been a good neighbour to the mountain rescue service by allowing members to drop everything and go whenever possible.
“But it isn’t just the bosses – the lads and lasses you work with have to pick up the slack if you have to go, and I think I can speak on behalf of all the Sellafield Ltd staff who are members of various Mountain Rescue teams when I say thank you to the company, and to our colleagues, for making our work possible. This honour is as much for you as it is for me.”
Mike, 46, will travel to London with his wife Tracey and children Bramble and Millie to collect his award later in the year.
Sellafield Ltd’s Engineering Director, Dawn James, who heads the directorate in which he works, said: “I’d like to congratulate Mike on his well deserved award.
“Sellafield Ltd is proud that so many of its employees participate in activities outside of their work which are so vital to the community. Our Mountain Rescue team members are perhaps the most vital of all, and provide a first class service which can be the difference between life and death to someone stuck on the fells.
“Mike’s dedication and enthusiasm epitomise the can-do attitude we try to encourage in all our employees, and we are delighted that he has been honoured in this way.”
