Coroner records narrative verdict into death of Sally Witcomb in Namibia in March 2007

CORONER RECORDS NARRATIVE VERDICT INTO DEATH OF SALLY WITCOMB IN NAMIBIA IN MARCH 2007

East Croydon, 14 October 2009

Sally Witcomb, a Raleigh volunteer manager, was tragically killed during a staff training adventure activity in Namibia in March 2007.

A UK Coroner has today recorded a narrative verdict for the tragic incident in which Sally, 32, of Sutton, Surrey, fell from a zip wire activity that was an optional part of her volunteer manager training in Namibia. She was wearing both a safety harness and a protective hard hat and was connected to a safety system at the time of the accident.

Raleigh is a youth and education charity that has taken 30,000 volunteer participants on expedition and has been in operation for 25 years. No other Raleigh participants have ever been killed in such an adventure exercise.

Raleigh has fully cooperated with investigations into Sally's death. We have also recently undergone an independent audit of our operating procedures which has concluded that they conform to the British Standard 8848, a new national standard for the safe management of overseas ventures .

With regard to the Namibia incident risk assessments were carried out on three separate occasions. These involved checking the site's safety and certification, the qualifications of the instructors and the standard of the equipment, as well as witnessing another organisation carrying out the activities and obtaining feedback from previous clients of the activity centre.

As you can imagine this has been a very difficult time for the staff and volunteers at Raleigh, but first and foremost for Sally's family and friends to whom we once again express our deep condolences.

For further information contact:

Rachel Collinson Rachel.collinson@raleigh.org.uk 020 7183 1293

Teresa Fitzgerald Teresa.fitzgerald@raleigh.org.uk 020 7183 1296

Anne Consedine Anne.Consedine@raleigh.org.uk 01442 843130