KIND-HEARTED volunteers have battled snow, sub zero temperatures and floods so nurses can provide a lifeline to a patient in the rural countryside.

For weeks 4x4 vehicles from Suffolk Rover Rescue have transported nurses to an isolated property in Butley, near Woodbridge.

The nurses had been getting stuck in their vehicles on a farm track as they tried to get to their patient who requires “essential treatment” every week.

Sister Sally Gaffer said the Land Rover support had been “invaluable”.

She said: “They have been absolutely brilliant. I do not know how we would have got there if it was not for the Land Rovers, it would have been very difficult with out them.

“I have done this patch for 17 years and I have never known it to be as bad as this.”

The Land Rovers starting helping when floods hit the region at the start of the month. The assistance continued this week during the snow and ice.

Dean Hendricks, from Suffolk Rover Rescue said: “We sent a Land Rover down to pick a nurse up and drove her there and waited whilst they visited, we did it three times that week.

“The patient was very pleased that they could continue their level of care. It’s not the end of the world – we can get to them, it’s the sort of thing that we can do. We can take people wherever they want to be.”

Suffolk Rover Rescue, which was founded in 1998, relies on donations to continue their work.

To find out more about the service they provide go to www.suffolkroverrescue.org.uk