A hiker has told how his auntie's life was saved because he had the what3words app on his mobile phone. Ed Farnworth , 31, and his auntie, Sarah Robert, 59, were hiking in Switzerland when Sarah fell 60ft down a mountain and suffered serious injuries. Sarah suffered a broken arm, gashed forehead and was severely concussed in the fall.
The pair were away from flat ground, in the woods and there were no landmarks for Ed to tell the emergency services where they were. Luckily, Ed, from Bolton , had the what3words app on his phone which provides users with a unique three-word code that reveals their precise location. After ringing the emergency services, who knew about what3words, the address ///crabmeat.
hers.froze showed the services the exact spot where Sarah landed. Ed said: “For most of my adult life I’ve been drawn to the outdoors, travelling, my big thing is getting out and seeing the world.
“My auntie hikes a lot too, with her friends and work colleges. It’s not as if we had not done stuff like this before, we were used to different terrain and everything.” On June 17, 2024, Ed and Sarah set off on what they thought was another memorable hike which they had both researched beforehand.
Ed, scheduling manager at BP, regularly goes and visits his auntie who is originally from Fleet, Hangs, but is now living in Switzerland. Ed said: “The weather was great; we’d stopped off for lunch and we were having an amazing day. “I was leading the way in front of her on ou.