A DEVOTED member of the Berkshire Search and Rescue Dogs (BSARD) team has explained why he does not mind missing Christmas.

Mark Lambden and his pet dogs Pepsi and Max, will be spending the festive season on call. Volunteering at the charity for more than 10 years, he is one of the teams longest serving members.

BSARD was formed in 2002 to assist in finding lost or missing people in Berkshire. They are entirely reliant on sponsorship and donations to train dogs.

Mr Lambden has been on call every Christmas since volunteering for the charity and has gone on searches on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.

Mark said: “The fact I might miss Christmas isn’t so important because I get to help someone and give back to the community.

“I’ve got a very, very tolerant family and wife, she knows that what I’m doing, I’m doing for a reason and she accepts that.”

He is the proud owner of two border collies, 11-year-old Pepsi, a qualified air scenting dog and veteran of many searches and six-year-old Max, a trainee trailing dog.

Mr Lambden added: “Pepsi’s reward for all the searches we do is throwing a tennis ball. She will go off into the woods and nine times out of 10 she will come back with one.

“Even though we are out there doing a very serious thing, to the dogs it’s just a game and for them it has to be fun.”

Volunteers like Mark train their pet dogs and pay for their own fuel to get to a search location. When not at work most volunteers are on call, dedicating most of their free time to helping others.

All rescue searches have three members of the team present; the handler, the dog and support for communication and navigation.

He added: “When I say three, I mean three because as far as I’m concerned the dog is the most important part of the team. When I’m working, I watch my dog all the time.

“Sometimes I get told, hang on, in this park there is a great big pond or there’s a cliff look out.”

Although not all searches are successful in locating the missing person, Mark and other volunteers help the Thames Valley Police to move forward with their investigations.

He said: “Sometimes we can’t provide the answer people want, but it’s closure and that’s the main thing.

“It’s a great feeling reuniting missing people with their family. You are on a high for a very long time after.”

The registered charity is on call 24 hours a day every day. In 2017, they attended 42 callouts and this year they have been on 41 searches so far.

BSARD will be at the Hurst Horse Show and Country Fayre in June.