Squirrel feeder locator app saves Derry mother who broke ankle in woodland

A mother who slipped and broke her ankle in three places while volunteering in the woods for a red squirrel conservation group has said she was saved from “an incredibly scary situation” by an app she normally uses to locate squirrel feeders.

Theresa Kelly, 55, a former civil servant who lives in Derry, Northern Ireland, was checking cameras and feeders in Muff Glen woodland near the village of Eglinton, as part of her volunteer work for the conservation society when she lost her footing and slipped, breaking her ankle.

Night was drawing in and Theresa had little idea where she was.

Unable to get herself back to her car, the mother-of-two phoned emergency services but could not point them to her exact location. 

However, Theresa did have what3words – a location app which gives a three-word code for every three-metre square in the world, which she uses for locating squirrel feeders – and paramedics were able to find her using her unique code.

Since then, Theresa has had surgery to have two plates and seven pins fitted but is now back to protecting the red squirrel population in her local area.

Theresa, who lives with her partner, Dermot, 65, a retired worker for Mars chocolate, and has two grown-up children, James, 27, and Seana, 23, said, “I use what3words regularly for red squirrel conservation, but never in a million years did I think I would use it in an emergency.

“I cannot praise what3words enough, it helped me out of an incredibly scary situation where I was all alone and stranded with no connection.”

Disaster struck in November 2023, when Theresa was setting up cameras for her red squirrel conservation society in the woods.

The mother-of-two had been spending time volunteering for the society after recovering from cancer treatment.

Theresa said: “Red squirrels are native to Ireland but are under risk of extinction following the introduction of the American grey squirrel.

“Our conservation society set up cameras and feeders around the local woods and marked their locations with what3words so we can easily navigate to them which is how I heard of the app in the first place.

“It was early afternoon in November and it was a lovely day. I was on my own and I’d had no issues, we do it all the time. It was just the most random thing that happened, I’d checked a couple of cameras and was moving on to the other ones when I slipped on some leaves.

“It was really mild and I honestly didn’t realise the damage I’d done, I thought it was just a sprain but I felt a pop and heard a crack, which I first thought was a twig I’d stood on.”

Realising she had injured her leg, Theresa considered hopping back to her car until she looked down and saw the severity of her situation.

She said: “I looked down and saw that my foot was at a right angle to my leg, so I thought, ‘that’s not good’.

“I did panic because I knew in that area there is no phone signal, so my heart sank. I just remember thinking that this might not go well.”

Theresa attempted to call emergency services but the call did not go through because of the poor signal. On a second attempt, the call connected but disconnected a few seconds later.

On the third try, however, Theresa was able to speak to somebody and recalled the ‘relief’ she felt to hear a voice on the other end of the line.

She said: “I just thought, at least I can let somebody know that I’m here. She asked me where I was and I told her the park but she said that was a bad place to find someone because it’s quite big.”

Unable to give an exact location, Theresa worried how paramedics would find her until the operator asked if she had the what3words app, which she did.

The location app gives a unique three-word code for every three-metre square in the world. Theresa sometimes uses the app with other volunteers to share the location of their cameras and had it installed on her phone.

Giving the call handler her three-word code, emergency services were able to find her within 40 minutes and take her to hospital by ambulance.

She said: “We use the app if we’re setting up cameras and feeders in different woodlands so we could let other volunteers know where they were rather than trying to describe where in the woodland they are.

“It had never entered my head that I would ever need it for an emergency situation.

“If I didn’t have it, I don’t know how long I would have been waiting. It was November and it was going up to three o’clock so I was aware that it would be dark soon.”

Once at hospital, it was clear that Theresa would need an operation to fix the damage to her leg after scans revealed that her ankle was broken in three places.

Following her surgery and recovery Theresa is now back out protecting the red squirrel population.

She added: “The surgeon told me that most people break one bone in their ankle but I had broken three. I was expecting it to be in plaster and off my feet for about four or five months but I was in plaster for just two weeks and then a surgical boot for another five weeks.

“The number of people I’ve told about the app who have never heard of it … there’s at least a dozen of my friends and probably more people that they have told too.

“Even if you’re meeting up with someone and you’re not too sure on the area, you can send them the what3words code and it takes you directly to where you want to go.

“It’s just handy, but for me, I wouldn’t say it was a lifesaver but it certainly helped in a situation where it could have been a lot worse.

“The app made it so much easier, the pain I was in and to be able to go to hospital so quickly and get seen … it could have been so much different so I was so relieved.”