Ben joined Surrey Search and Rescue as a volunteer search technician in September 2024 and after undergoing a rigorous training programme that required him to learn skills such as navigation, radio communications, crime scene management and first aid became operational in December 2024.

Since becoming operational he has been on-call with the team and attended many callouts at all times of the day and night.

Ben is now also working to train his dog, Skye, as a ground-scenting search dog that, once operational will be able to follow the specific scent of a missing person using an item of their clothing to identify the exact path they have taken. This will enable the team to quickly identify the direction a missing person has travelled in and allocate search resources effectively.