His important role with Grangemouth-based search and rescue charity International Rescue has seen him travel to disaster areas all over the world – with missions to Africa, South America, Japan and India.

A mechanical fitter by trade, 59-year-old John, of Queen Street, Grangemouth, has been a volunteer with International Rescue for over 20 years.

"I enjoy being part of the team effort – it's just like a family,'' he said. ''I've worked with these people for so long.

''The locals think you can work miracles when you go in as part of a rescue team, but you can't.

"You're only there to help and to try to do your best."
John's wife of 34 years, Martha, has been involved with International Rescue almost as long as he has and is now the charity's national treasurer.

Martha and sons Lee (30) and Chris (26) have concerns every time John goes off on an operation.

"They do worry about me," said John. "But it's a bit like going to your work. An accident can happen at your work just the same as it can happen doing something like this."

John went through the intensive training required of all International Rescue volunteers.

"Training is continual because there is new equipment coming out all the time,'' he explained. ''We train every month all year round – but it's only through experience you really learn these things."

But no amount of training or experience could prepare John for the sights that greeted him when he volunteered to go out to the aftermath of the earthquake which hit Japan in 1995.

"That was my first search and rescue operation," he said. "I was looking up at 15-storey buildings which had crunched down so you couldn't see floors in the middle – they had just disappeared.

"Buildings were lying on their sides and the docks were destroyed – the whole area was basically devastated. I had never seen anything like it before, except maybe on the news."

The dangerous nature of the job hit home for John when he entered his first wrecked building.

"It was a hotel and we made our way to the top floor – that's the way you search, from the top down to the bottom. We hadn't got very far when there was an aftershock.

"In that situation, when you can't get out quickly, you've just got to look for somewhere strong to stand, like under doorways. Some of those aftershocks can be stronger than the actual earthquakes."

John admitted he was greatly affected by the sheer number of people who died in the earthquake.

"Most of the time we were searching the rubble for bodies because we arrived a week after the earthquake and there weren't many survivors by that stage," he added.

He went from experiencing terrible lows over the massive loss of human life in Japan, to feelings of tremendous elation in Turkey four years later when he was part of a team who found a young woman alive and well.

"It was a great feeling to get her out of there," he said.

Then, after the earthquake in India in 2001, he helped rescue a student who had been trapped in the rubble for five days and was the only member of his family to survive the disaster.

"Some of the locals told us they heard a voice and asked us to come and listen,'' John said. ''It's a team effort, you have to work together to dig through the rubble – there is no way someone could do it on their own.

"We offer our services to anyone – anyone can phone us for help and we will try to get a team out to them."