Warwick Rotarians hear about life-saving work of Air Ambulance – which is also being supported by the club

Members of the Warwick Rotary Club recently heard about the life-saving work of The Air Ambulance – which is also the President’s chosen charity for his year in office.

Peter Heywood, a volunteer speaker for the charity visited the club in December.

Rotary president Alan Bailey has adopted them as his charity for the year in gratitude for it taking his son direct to a burns unit several years ago.

Other Rotarians also had experience of the charity rescuing family members.

Originally known as the Warwickshire and Northants Air Ambulance, it was founded in 2003 and is a charity funded by volunteers.

In 2011, it joined with the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Service to become The Air Ambulance Service.

In 2013 The Children’s Air Ambulance was established as part of the group to move critically ill children to hospital.

They have a charity shop in Warwick’s Market Square – one of more than 35 which help to raise money to keep the service running.

The Air Ambulance Service leases it’s familiar yellow and black helicopters, with the Children’s service flying in green livery. They operate from a variety of heliports covering the centre of the country.

The charity says that more than £6million is needed each year to keep it in the air – with missions costing around £1,700 a time.

It said that across 20 years nearly 47,000 missions have been flown.

The charity says the majority of calls are to road traffic accidents but that it is also called out to falls, medical emergencies, sports injuries, industrial accidents and other incidents.

The air ambulance is called in when the location is hard to reach and speed is crucial to save a life.

Thanking Peter for his presentation Rotarian Alan Bailey said many did not realise that they received no public funding.

The club will be doing bucket collections throughout the year and a substantial donation will be made at the end of the Rotary year in July.

For more information about The Air Ambulance go to: https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk/