By: Blonde One

This blog post about sending an emergency text message is worth repeating so forgive me if you’ve heard it before. Rest assured you will hear it again in the future too!

On our recent navigation workshop, I was reminded of a service that I was introduced to some time ago on a DofE managers’ training day. We had a session on safety on the hills and ran through various scenarios to keep us up to date on practices and procedures. There were a few surprised faces when we were told that to get help in a remote area you must dial 999 and ask for the police even of you know that an air rescue will be required. The other surprise was this one:

By logging onto www.emergencysms.org.uk you can register your phone so that you can send a text to the 999 emergency services from a variety of mobile phone networks even if you’re not registered with them. This service is ideal for the deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired, but is also crucial for us when we’re out in remote areas with poor mobile signal. Sometimes a text will send even when you can’t connect to make a voice call. It’s another way to make sure you’re covered when you’re out and about so I recommend that you get your phone registered before you need the service.

I suppose I should comment, even though I’m sure it’s unnecessary with our fabulous readers, that this service is to be treated in the same way as ringing 999 normally. Please only use it in an emergency.