Lost On the Mountain!

My husband and I have just had the worst afternoon of our lives, apart from nearly 30 years ago when we lost our middle daughter, Nikki, then two, on Camber Sands in Sussex. As the weather was so pleasant we decided to take a walk up the paths of the forested Nercwys Mountain nearby. We insisted our Down Syndrome son, John-Paul (20), accompanied us too, although he would have preferred to stay at home playing video games! My husband and I clambered up a hill telling J-P to carry on walking along the path and we would meet him a minute or two later. When we got to the main path, NO John-Paul!!! We couldn’t find him anywhere and found it hard to believe that he could have walked so fast so that we missed him, normally he isn’t ‘Speedy Gonzales’!

After an hour of frantic searching we called the Police. Soon the Police, Mountain Rescue Team, Tracker dogs were on the scene and the Police Helicopter on standby. Members of the public were only too pleased to help, and eventually a dog walker found J-P in the dark, quite happily walking along a path he had turned off onto, through the conifers, he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. We had told John-Paul to keep walking until we met him, and he did just that! Our very grateful thanks are due to the North East Wales Police, the North East Wales Mountain Rescue Team, The Helicopter Crew, The Police Dogs and the members of the public, especially the dog walker, who helped in the search. Our wine cellar will be depleted when we have taken around bottles to all those who helped, but our precious son is worth EVERYTHING!!!