Moray volunteer Liz Tait on experience of helping people affected by Rhodes wildfires in Greece
A MORAY volunteer has recalled her challenging experience helping British holidaymakers escape from wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes.
Liz Tait (65), from Lossiemouth, supported Britons and local residents in the area where wildfires caused six deaths and displaced more than 21,500 people.
Liz – who is the head clinical and care governance at Dr Gray's in Elgin – led a delegation of four British Red Cross Psychosocial Support Team volunteers on the deployment and worked alongside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Her team worked day and night alongside the fire service to help evacuate holidaymakers and local residents. They also kept people comfortable as hotels with a 2300 capacity hosted an extra 2000 on top of that.
Liz said: "This deployment was different to many others I have been on in the past as the people we were supporting had simply booked a holiday and were met with the wildfires and subsequent destruction they caused.
“You are supporting them through the initial stages, like having to take shelter on the floor of a hotel which they weren’t staying in, being in large groups with strangers, not having access to fresh clothes, toiletries or medicine.
“However, you also have to prepare them for returning home and being in a position to return to normal life after going through such a traumatic event.
"We met some very distressed people when we arrived in Rhodes and we had to help them function in a new environment while the wildfires were ongoing, and all the uncertainty that comes with that.”
Liz was quick to thank the Hellenic Red Cross, who she worked with during her time in Greece.
“The Hellenic Red Cross volunteers were doing amazing work when we arrived in Rhodes and it was great to be able to support them," she added.
“As our delegation arrived, they could see they were no longer alone and we were able to support them on the ground.
“After coming back to the UK, I received a text from the Hellenic Red Cross service team leader thanking us for all of the support and helping to raise morale."
Liz has worked to support thousands of people transiting to the UK over the span of 50 years. She was recently deployed to Cyprus to help Brits feeling conflict in Sudan.
In 2006, she helped support people fleeing Beirut and has since been involved with emergencies including the Chinese earthquake in 2008, the Tunisia terror attack in 2015, Hurricane Irma in Dominica in 2017 and the Afghanistan evacuation in 2021.
She has also been part of British Red Cross teams that have responded to the Manchester arena bombing, Grenfell Tower fire and Shoreham Air Show disaster.
