The mum of George Linnane, the caver rescued after more than 50 hours trapped underground, has thanked the hero volunteers who saved his life.
George, 38, is in hospital with multiple fractures after his ordeal, which began when he fell 50ft and was crushed by a boulder on Saturday.
His mum, Sally Linnane-Hemmens, said the long wait for her son to be brought to the surface had been “horrendous”.
Sally, from Titchfield, Hants, set up a fundraiser for the South & Mid-Wales Cave Rescue Team which led the operation.
She posted: “These guys, along with several other cave rescue teams from across the UK, saved my son’s life.
“He had been trapped underground for 50 hours-plus and is badly injured.”
It was Britain’s biggest cave rescue, involving 250 people.
George, who describes himself on social media as a “petrolhead, scuba diver, caver, engineer, snowboarder, DJ, producer, human”, had travelled from his home in Bristol to explore the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu caves in the Brecon Beacons, Wales.
To get him out, rescuers had to swim through a swollen underground stream, with George on a floating stretcher, and had to lift him 90ft through a vertical chasm with the stretcher on ropes.
Michael Thomas, a friend and fellow caver who spent 12 hours underground with George, joked online: “The first thing he got from me… was stick, making me go down bloody dim [water] entrance to reach him.”
George runs a small engineering company and has travelled the world with his French girlfriend. Asking not to be named, she said last night: “We are obviously very grateful to all the rescuers.”
