A BOY and a dog were both rescued in separate incidents at Rivington Pike during the Easter weekend.

The boy, aged 12, was airlifted to hospital after tumbling down a slope at Rivington Pike.

Bolton Mountain Rescue Team members also went to the aid of a dog which slipped and broke its leg.

The boy, Matthew Fielding, was walking up the Pike on Good Friday with his family when he fell down the steep side of Rivington Pike, which overlooks Rivington Moor.

Matthew, of Langstone Close, Horwich, underwent an operation on his knee at Royal Bolton Hospital on Sunday.

Anne Cornes, Matthew's grandmother, said: "He is bearing up pretty well really. His auntie and uncle said that everyone who helped were absolutely fantastic . They really did a good job."

Matthew was at the top of the Pike with his brother Jack, aged 10, and sister Rachael, aged seven, and his uncle and aunt, Gary and Cathy Cornes, when he slipped and fell down the hill.

An ambulance was called at around 11.45am but because of the rough terrain the North-west Air Ambulance was scrambled from Blackpool. Members of the mountain rescue team were already in the area because of the Rivington Pike Good Friday annual festivities. The first team members were on the scene at 11.55am and diagnosed that Matthew had a displaced kneecap and a fracture around the knee.

He was treated with pain-killing gas and his leg was put in a vacuum splint.

A paramedic crew from Blackrod ambulance station was escorted to the scene by mountain rescue team members, along with three police officers.

Gary Rhodes, team leader of Bolton Mountain Rescue, said: "Because of the nature of the injury and the very rough moorland track the ambulance would have had to take, it was decided to call on the services of the helicopter to airlift the boy directly to hospital."

Just as that incident was coming to an end, three walkers approached rescuers carrying an injured dog, which had slipped in a stream and broken its leg.

Mountain rescue team member and vet, Daniel Lewis, put a splint on the dog"s front right leg and also provided painkilling drugs.

He then arranged for the two-year-old Collie dog, called Molly, to be admitted to Pet Medics in Walkden.

Owner Steve Mayor, aged 31, of Cooper Street, Horwich, said: "I am extremely grateful to them, they were spot on."