3 Jan 2024
As the New Year passes us and we look ahead to 2024, we want to share with you some of London’s Air Ambulance Charity’s highlights from the year before.
From reaching crucial milestones in the Up Against Time appeal and winning prestigious awards, to creating new resources and securing exclusive media opportunities, London’s life-saving charity has achieved a lot.
Most importantly, throughout 2023 our crew continued to save lives in London, every day, when someone was so critically injured they didn’t have time to get to hospital. This was only possible thanks to our incredible supporters and volunteers. Thank you – we can’t save lives without you.
We hope you enjoy reflecting on some of our 2023 highlights below and we look forward to achieving even more in 2024 with your support.
Tune in for more
During 2023, London’s Air Ambulance Charity secured various coverage on both local and national TV.
In February 2023, our PRU team was showcased on BBC London News. A reporter joined the crew in the rapid response cars and witnessed firsthand the community emergency medicine our team provide North East London. It was brilliant to spread awareness of this vital team who administer holistic, patient-centred care, often in the patients’ own homes.
On 4 August, BBC London hosted an incredible live news broadcast from London’s Air Ambulance Charity’s helipad, atop The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. The coverage included a live piece to camera, interviews with our medics, a FacebookLive session and a feature on our patient James. If you missed it on the day, you can still watch the full coverage here.
Also in August 2023, Channel 4’s documentary Emergency returned to our screens, showcasing the minute-by-minute decisions our medics make on scene when treating London’s critically injured. The four-part series was aired over two weeks and you can watch all the episodes now on Channel 4.
Reaching the halfway milestone
In October 2022, we launched our Up Against Time appeal – focused on raising an additional £15 million by autumn 2024 to replace our two helicopters.
In 2023, we reached the halfway mark of this target, with an outstanding £7.5 million raised.
Every penny collected on the street to every large-scale donation gifted has contributed towards this achievement and we’re so grateful to every one of our supporters. In 2023’s Big City Collection, charity staff, operational crew and volunteers took to London’s transport networks, sporting events and leisure activities and raised over £29,000. London Freemasons pledged to raise £3 million for the appeal and philanthropists Julia and Hans Rausing generously donated £1 million towards the new fleet.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us reached the halfway mark. Here’s to reaching the full target in 2024!
Sharing our new resource
The year 2023 also saw us release a new resource, a bereavement booklet called 12 memories of sudden and unexpected loss.
Within the booklet 12 families came together and shared their most pertinent and treasured memories of losing a loved one suddenly and unexpectedly. This one-of-its-kind resource we hope will be a guide and a solace to those who may find themselves having to navigate the painful path of sudden and unexpected loss and is free of charge to anyone who may need it.
You can view, download and read the booklet here.
Celebrating our heroes
In September, London’s Air Ambulance’s Dr Benjamin Marriage and Paramedics Chris Doyle and Kevin Cuddon won The Sun’s Who Cares Wins ‘999 hero’ award.
Nominated by our ex-patient Sarah, who the team attended to on 30 September 2022, The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Awards celebrated healthcare heroes who have gone above and beyond to provide care to others. We were honoured to be both nominated and then win!
On the day after the awards ceremony, Dr Benjamin Marriage joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show to talk about being a joint-recipient of the award. You can listen to their conversation here.
Spreading our charitable status
Finally, in 2023, for the first time ever, London’s Air Ambulance Charity secured its first official media partner – Newsquest London.
This meant news and updates from the charity have been published in over 30 newspapers across the capital: spreading the knowledge that we are a charity, with 96% of our funds reliant on public support.
We’re so grateful to Newsquest for helping us on our mission and hope you’ve enjoyed spotting us in your local newspaper throughout the year!
Once again, thank you so much for helping us on our mission to save more lives in London. On average we attend five critically injured patients each day, and we couldn’t do it without you. We hope you have had a lovely New Year and wish you all the best for 2024.
