30 November 2003. The following is the text of a press release distributed by the Royal Humane Society on 27 November 2003.

Beautiful and tragic - the Yungas Road, labelled 'The Most Dangerous Road in the World' by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995

A group of British rescue heroes have received top bravery honours by Royal approval for a daring rescue bid following a horror incident on "the most dangerous road in the world" in the mountains of Bolivia.

Despite the fact that most of the rescuers had never met before the three-week climbing expedition they were on they used remarkable teamwork in a rescue attempt that tested their expertise and stamina to their limits.

Today their efforts to save a French woman who had fallen, and who tragically died, were heralded "Herculean" by a top officer with the Humane Society.

The team, on their last day in Bolivia on 15 August, had taken a mountain-bike trip from the peaks above La Paz down into the Amazon basin - known locally as 'the most dangerous road in the world', and home to a number of shrines to travellers who have lost their lives after crashing off it into the jungle below. As they rounded a corner on the unmetalled road, which had a cliff to the right and a sheer drop to the left, they found a similar group in chaos, as one of their number, a French school-teacher, named in the Humane Society citation only as Anna, had gone over the edge and was lying badly injured in the jungle below.

None of Anna's group had any rope climbing skills, Michael Liebreich took over as Team Leader and led his group into their attempted rescue [ML note: a better description would have been Incident Manager, as I was not actually the group leader]. He sent Dr Katherine Henderson, an accident and emergency consultant at a London hospital, down into the ravine where the injured woman was lying, together with experienced climbers Jeremy Hart and Gregory Guida. Liebreich requisitioned three radios from various jeeps, cleared the road, called La Paz for an ambulance - which never arrived - assigned someone to comfort Anna's distraught best friend, and then arranged what resources he could to equip the three to go down into the ravine.

Dr Henderson was lowered down to the victim, who had fallen down nearly 50 metres of sheer cliff. Anna was conscious, but had extensive injuries to her back and head, so the group decided they needed to act fast to get her back up the cliff, rather than wait [for] emergency services to arrive. Hart and Guida, who played a crucial part in extracting Anna from the ravine, lowered a picnic table down to Dr Henderson to use as a back-board. Hart then constructed a cradle to lift Anna up, before completing a hazardous solo climb back up to lead the rope crews, which were formed from the rest of Liebreich's group. At this stage, only Liebreich remained at road level and [he requisitioned] an ambulance which happened to pass by chance, but which had no-one medically trained on board.

Sadly, just as the team managed to get Anna over the cliff and scrambled to get her into the ambulance to be taken to La Paz, her heart and breathing stopped. Dr Henderson, who had been pulled up the cliff in a harness, and two nurses from another group of travellers who had stopped, tried to resucitate her using cardiac resucitation and heart massage, but her trauma and blood loss was too great, and Dr Henderson was forced to pronounce her dead.

Now, as a result of the rescue, Jeremy Hart of Oswestry, Shropshire, Dr Katherine Henderson of London and company director Gregory Guida of Elgin, Scotland, have each been awarded Bronze Medals personally approved of by the Society's President, Princess Alexandra along with [a] certificate signed by her. Group leader Michael Liebreich of London, David More of Footdee, Aberdeen, Janet Williams of Cardiff and Jonathan Creasey of Weybridge, Surrey, who all took part in the rescue, are also to receive Testimonials on Vellum personally approved and signed by the Princess.

On top of the awards the amazing group today also won the personal praise of Major General Christopher Tyler, Secretary of the Royal Humane Society. Speaking at the Society's London headquarters this morning he said:

"This remarkable team was recommended for awards by their leader, Mr Liebreich, in a letter whose eloquence I would struggle to match. I can only share his opinion that every one involved used Herculean efforts in a bid to save this woman and to comfort the rest of her travelling party. "As he rightfully says, the eventual outcome does not diminish in any way the bravery, professionalism and public-spiritedness of the team. "He says that, while Dr Henderson knew from the start that Anna's chances were practically zero, it would not have made any difference to the group to know that, as, in his words, they felt no choice as long as the victim was alive but to do what they did. "Despite the tragedy, he rightfully calls it one of the proudest moments of his life to have been involved in such an extraordinary, complex rescue, with people who had met only weeks before. All involved should feel the same, and I am honoured to offer our awards as a testament to the courage shown. They all put their own lives on the line in this rescue and are true heroes and heroines."

No date has yet been fixed for presentation of the awards in this case, but it is expected to take place in the near future.

The Royal Humane Society [www.royalhumane.org] was originally formed by a group of London doctors in 1774 and is the leading UK organisation responsible for honouring lifesavers and those who have been involved in heroic rescue incidents.