Brighton dog survives 100 metre fall in Lake District

Daniel Rodgers and Emma Charvet from Fiveways, Brighton, travelled to the Lake District for a walking holiday with their nine-year-old dog Chilli, a retriever/springer spaniel cross.

While on their walk, Emma suddenly realised Chilli had gone missing.

She said: “He is a dog that stays with us, he was with us all the way up. Literally, one moment he was with us and the next he vanished.

“I turned around to Daniel and said “Where is he?” I panicked straight away.

“We searched in the area for quite a long time; no one had seen anything, no one had heard anything, we just felt he must have fallen.

“We couldn’t get down because it was really steep there, so we decided to go around. We spent the whole day there and come back and the next day we took to social media.”

How far Chilli had fallen down the side of the fell (Image: Submitted)

Among those joining the search was Labour leader Keir Starmer, who was seen handing out posters in cafes to spread the message. Emma is friends with his wife and the couple also happened to be on holiday in the area.

Emma said: “The community were just incredible - we had so much support, people were coming to help. It was really amazing that the word got out but nobody had seen or heard from him for two whole days.

“It was really hard to stay positive - I just had to believe that he was out there.”

Emma and the mountain rescue team with Chilli (Image: Submitted)

After Daniel and Emma posted on a climbing website, Tomas Luke went out to look for Chilli.

He found Chilli’s dog tag and, after following nearby bracken that had been disturbed, the climber located the stranded dog.

The dog with Tomas Luke, the climber who found Chilli (Image: Submitted)

Chilli had to wait another four hours after being found to be rescued by mountain rescue crews, as the team had to deal with another call at the same time.

He was then pulled up, put on a stretcher and taken to safety.

Emma called Chilli’s rescue “miraculous” and said: “Despite being in pain, he loved having all the guys around him, he just looked so pleased to be the centre of attention.”

Chilli went to Oak Hill Vets for a check-up, who were on standby until he was rescued (Image: Submitted)

Chilli is likely to make a full recovery but will need some time to recover from a head injury and bruising from his fall.

Although Chilli has done walks in mountainous environments before, Daniel and Emma said that he will now be on a lead, as even experienced dogs can find themselves in trouble.