For most of us, Christmas means taking a break and settling down for the season. However, our duty teams will remain online, continuing to look after London while the rest of us celebrate.

To help those on duty share in the festive spirit, a hamper of goodies will be waiting for each team when they arrive at the helipad, from 24th December to 1st January.

Patients in East London are getting specialist treatment quickly and avoiding trips to hospital thanks to our remodelled Physician Response Unit (PRU), new figures released today have shown. A review of the first 365 days of the unique collaboration with Barts Health NHS Trust and London Ambulance Service has revealed that by taking the emergency department on the road, care is being transformed for patients. 

The new figures show that:

Back in October, we asked London’s young artists to get creative and design a new Christmas card for our charity. After a difficult judging process by our expert panel, we are pleased to announce that the winner was Luna, aged 4 and a ½.

Luna was inspired to enter the competition by her grandmother Shirley, who is one of our charity’s longest-serving volunteers. Shirley has been volunteering with us for four years, and is often found serving London with a smile in our charity’s shop. 

Sebastian was just three years old when he was knocked off his scooter by a car. With injuries that had the potential to be very serious, it was vital that he received specialist care within minutes.

“We were walking to the park one afternoon”, recalled Lee, his mother. “We got to a driveway on the pavement. We live on a road that’s very busy, so Seb is very good at checking the roads and he’s very aware of what’s going on around him. He asked me, ‘is it okay to cross mummy?’, looked at me and I said yes. I was just behind him pushing his sister Harriet in the pram.

June Sampson was on her way home from work when she was hit by a car outside Kingston Hospital. At the age of 80, she was still working as a features editor of her local paper and was heading back for tea.

Four years later, her daughter Anna tells us about that night and the impact it has had on her family.

“I was at home in North London when my Dad called me to tell me about the accident”, recalled Anna. “She was at a zebra crossing when a driver leaving his shift at the hospital didn’t see her. She stepped into the road and he knocked her down.”