‘He was actually cracking jokes’: a volunteer on the 54-hour Brecon Beacons cave rescue

Peter Dennis was one of the hundreds who descended into the 43-mile underground network to save injured caver George Linnane

It was when the text message suggested volunteers bring a sleeping bag that Dr Peter Dennis realised he might be in for what he politely refers to a protracted operation". But little did he know he would not return home for three nights after the longest rescue mission in Welsh history.

The ecologist from Aberystwyth University had heeded the call last Saturday to join the search for an injured caver in the Brecon Beacons who had fallen a mile into the 43.5-mile (70km) intestinal" network of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, which translates as Cave of the Black Spring.