Our charity needs your help. We have been shortlisted for Local Charity of the Year partnerships at Sainsbury's stores across the capital, taking us through to the public votes. We would be so grateful if you would take 10 seconds to cast your vote online or in your local Sainsbury's store, and select London's Air Ambulance as your Charity of the Year.
National Volunteers’ Week provides a chance to say thank you for everything our volunteers do. To celebrate, we’re sharing just a few of their stories and the contribution they make to our charity. Former patient Nigel shares his journey to volunteering, and how he donates his time to help our service save lives.
Why did you decide to volunteer for London’s Air Ambulance?
To celebrate National Volunteers’ Week, we’re sharing the stories of just a few of our volunteers and the difference that their time makes to our charity. Bucket collector, advocate and abseiler extraordinaire Ally explains why she was inspired to volunteer, and how she set out to help our service:
Why did you decide to volunteer for London’s Air Ambulance?
Our charity has marked the first anniversary of the London Bridge attack with the release of a video of flight Paramedic Bill Leaning reflecting on his role on the night.
Londoner Bill was on duty dispatching our charity’s advanced trauma team on Saturday 3 June 2017. On what had been an otherwise normal night, at 10pm a van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge and a knife attack was launched in Borough Market.
In the video Bill explains how he saw the calls start coming in;
Our advanced trauma team do everything they can to give our patients not only the best chance of survival, but the best quality of life after suffering from trauma. Brain injury is one of the type of traumatic injury that patients can sustain. Alice Kershberg, Clinical Nurse Specialist for Neurotrauma at The Royal London Hospital, guides many of our former patients and their families through the recovery process. She shared her insight on their journey.
What are the most common effects of brain injury?
A doctor and paramedic team from our charity has been honoured for the lifesaving treatment they gave to the UK’s youngest ever shooting victim.
With the arrival of Spring comes our service’s third year of extended flying hours; as the days get longer, so do the hours our helicopter can be used to deliver our advanced trauma team to critically injured patients. Mark Drewitt, our Fire Crew’s newest member, joined the team in January to help make sure our helipad continues to operate smoothly during this time. He tells us about his time with London’s Air Ambulance so far, and how extended flying hours affect our charity’s service.
On extended flying hours
There’s a less than 24 hours to go until this year’s BMJ Awards, where our Physician Response Unit, run in partnership with Barts Health Trust and London Ambulance Service, has been nominated for Emergency Team of the Year. The award honours teams providing high quality care for patients in the fast-paced and challenging acute setting.
Our charity has welcomed a team who took part in the Marathon des Sables ultra-marathon back from the Sahara. The £90,000 raised is enough to treat 53 people in London.
The team completed an epic 256km, self-sustained run across the desert to raise crucial funds for our life-saving service to continue serving London. The relentless challenge has been called ‘the toughest footrace on earth’ and was described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as the hardest thing he has ever done.
Rio sponsored British Touring Car Championship driver Bobby Thompson will be supporting our charity during the 2018 racing season. The popular Essex based 21-year-old already boasts a six-year racing career that has seen rapid progress, especially since joining Team Hard in the VW Cup in 2015 and then going on to win the VW Cup Series in 2017.
