The worst 24 hours of my life.

At 6:00 pm on the 25/7/17 my grandad went missing. My three cousins and I arrived out to out grandparents house with the intention of going to swim in the lake by their house in the sunny weather (not so common here in Ireland).

But shortly after arriving my grandmother Dorothy mentioned that she hadn't seen Bob (my grandad) in an hour or so.

My grandad has dementia. It's the most horrible disease I've encountered and this disease can make him unpredictable.Before he went missing he was getting angry and agitated.

In these situations when he gets into a rage, Dorothy has been told by professionals that she should leave him alone to cool down. This is what she did.

She thought he was in the kitchen but half an hour later when she had went to check on him she realised he was no where to be found.

My grandad is no ordinary 77 year old. He has a black belt in Judo, he won the Liffey Descent, sailed across the Indian Ocean and traveled the world. This man is tough.

When we phoned the police, they were obviously picturing a frail old man. Boy were they wrong...

Despite his condition, Bob cycles miles from his home frequently. It's usually to stop and chat in his local bar 2 miles from his home (where he is a well know and loved regular) and always seemed to find his way back. This is where we suspected he was and we seemed to all be waiting for him to cycle down the lane. But that was when we realized all three of his bicycles were still at the house. He was on foot.

My cousins and I hopped on our bikes and began to ask locals and cycle around every lane in the area. We tried every path he could of gone but there was no sign.

As soon as the darkness began to creep over the horizon we knew this was getting serious. At this stage the police had sent around 50 officers, 20 search and rescue, life boats and a huge helicopter which had thermal imaging cameras.

The police were everywhere. It was pitch black and the rain was pouring down so heavily you could barely see two feet ahead of you with the torch. But despite the weather all these people were scattered across the land with their torches searching for him. It was the most chilling thing I'd ever seen.

At 3:30 am they decided to suspend the search until the helicopter arrived with the thermal imaging at 5:00 am (It had to go back to refuel earlier, but couldn't lift off again due to the weather)

So I was forced to go home and rest. I slept for two hours and was back out to my grandmothers with almost my entire family at 8:00am.

At this point the police had already searched the grounds AGAIN after last night. They were so thorough it was amazing. By 11:00 am my entire family were out and ready to help. There were sniffer dogs everywhere searching for his scent. For a terrifying half an hour they searched the shore line because the dogs seemed to be interested in something there by the lake. Thankfully they found nothing.

What scared me the most was that I could see that after the first night they were starting to search the lake. I couldn't bare the thought. It was really beginning to sink in.

During all this, people online were sharing my posts about Bob being missing and commenting and messaging our family words of encouragement. The support was overwhelming.

After a few more agonizing hours there was a phone call. One search party had found something. So my cousin, my best friend and I headed up the lane to investigate where we had last heard they were. When we reached the top of the lane a large jeep drove past us. At the last minute I realized that there was an officer hanging out of the boot. I peered in to see why and I saw someone lying in there wrapped in a tin foil blanket. My hearts stopped but around me people were emerging from the fields smiling. At this point I take the first breath I'd felt I'd taken in two days. He's alive.

Medics take give him home to give emergency first aid while they wait for an ambulance. He was hours away from death. I can only see him in glimpses because of everyone crowding round to help but he's caked from head to toe in thick mud and there's scratches and blood all over his face. However at this point I hear a medic say "I'm going to lift you're arm Bob okay?" And he replies with "yes aye, okay".

It's his voice that starts the tears. I've grown up listening to that voice. It's in the background of everything and every memory. It's so familiar, the very thought that I might never have heard that voice again if we had been any later in finding him was just unbearable. They carry him in a stretcher to the ambulance and the whole way through it he's answering the paramedics.

The headlines in the local newspaper read "pensioner found in a ditch is gravely ill" and yes he is gravely ill. However the headline sounds far too simple, if doesn't say that that ditch was one of hundreds in the 500 acre estate of Belle Isle. It makes us sound like we didn't bother checking every field within a close enough proximity.

When the ambulance takes him to the hospital everyone seems to be still in shock.

I'm writing this blog post because all of this happened today and I can't sleep because everything is replaying in my head. If it weren't for the Police forces and rescue teams he wouldn't be here now. He wouldn't be lying asleep in a clean warm hospital bed. He wouldn't have had a warm dinner surrounded with his family. I can't bear to think about the alternative. I'll never forget what the emergency services did for my family. They provided so much reassurance throughout the traumatic experience and I cannot begin to express how much calmer they made the situation. You really got the feeling that they would never stop, no matter what the costs. You could tell they really cared and that they were good at what they do.

I will be indebted to them until the day I die.

-M

#BobMaher #PSNI #NorthernIreland #Searchanrescue