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Gift for air ambulance

Thursday, January 22, 2009, 07:27

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A charitable Bristol couple had a Christmas with a difference when they rejected the usual haul of presents, and instead asked friends and relatives to donate money to the Post's air ambulance appeal.

Peter and Shirley House, of Eastville, felt that they did not need any gifts so asked their family to send the money to Great Western Air Ambulance instead.

The helicopter service relies on donations to meet the £1.3 million a year operating costs and the Post is backing them with the Sky's the Limit appeal.

The couple's daughter, Pauline Hendy, of Thornbury, sent in £100 as her gift to her parents and the charity.

They still exchanged stockings with small gifts but most of the money put aside for presents was donated.

Mrs House, 71, said: "I have known for a long time that air ambulances do great work across the country and also learnt more about their fantastic work through a television programme.

"They do a really marvellous job.

"We both have heart conditions and have spent time in Frenchay and the BRI and we are lucky that we have been able to get there alright with a traditional ambulance but they need help.

"I thought, I don't want Christmas presents, so all the money that would have been spent on ours was donated to the air ambulance."

Mr House, 73, met people who had been transferred by air ambulance when he spent some time in hospital.

He said: "We thought it was a good idea because after years and years and years we didn't want anything and thought the money for presents would be better off with the charity.

"The air ambulance do a wonderful job."

Mrs Hendy said the idea of making donations to charity rather than giving Christmas presents came from her nephew.

She said: "The air ambulance crews do such wonderful work. And the service is a local charity as well."

 

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airambulancepics
The Evening Post has joined forces with the Great Western Air Ambulance to help them raise the more than one million they need each year to keep their helicopter flying.
The service flies a crew of doctors and specialist paramedics to emergencies to provide A&E standard care at the scene, helping save lives and minimise the possibility of more serious injury.
They can stabilise patients and help them breathe and in the most serious cases can anaesthetise people and carry out other emergency procedures while they are still in their home, on the roadside or sports pitch.
Patients are then transported to the most appropriate hospital for their injuries rather than the nearest because the initial preparation has already been carried out at the scene.
It also enables a casualty to be taken straight into the operating theatre, scanner or intensive treatment unit when they arrive at the A&E rather than waiting to be prepared.
Great Western Air Ambulance was launched in June and has already been called to more than 200 incidents and helped save lives but other than the salaries of the paramedics who fly as part of the crew, there is no NHS funding for the service and the team relies on its own dedicated charity and the goodwill of the public to raise the funding needed each year.
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