Doctor Chrissie Hymers, paramedic Karen King and Firefighter Joanna Waite have visited Hornsey School for Girls to speak to students about London's Air Ambulance and their careers.
The talks were arranged by Pilot Andy Thomson, and aimed to inspire the students to take Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) courses and pursue a future career in these STEM subjects, where sadly women are still underrepresented.
During the Marathon des Sables, competitors run on average 26 miles every day in the scorching Sahara heat. They’ll need to be on their feet for long hours and keep a cool head under pressure.
As a member of our Fire Crew, Mick is well accustomed to long and unpredictable days but the race still presents an epic challenge.
“I’ve had a few people ask me ‘are you mad?’ I can neither deny nor confirm that," laughs Mick.
On 17th November 2017, Darren and Julie Munro pulled out all the stops to throw a glamorous gala in aid of London’s Air Ambulance and the Fire Fighters Charity. 130 guests came together at Kingswood Gold and Country Club to support our charities, where they raised an incredible £9,500 for London’s Air Ambulance and £19,000 in total.
A team of 14 individuals, representing all aspects of the London’s Air Ambulance charity, will be taking part in the Marathon des Sables later this year. The challenge is known as “the toughest footrace on earth”, as it sees competitors run the equivalent of 6 marathons over 6 days through the beating heat of the Sahara desert.
The charity was pleased to welcome one of our lucky lottery winners to our helipad last week so that we could present the winning cheque and say thanks for her support.
Bromley resident Alison Steele scooped the top prize of £1,000 in the London’s Air Ambulance weekly lottery, which raises vital funds each year for the charity. Thanks to lottery players across London, the charity is able to maintain its life saving service all year round.
While most of us will be slowing down for the festive season, our teams will continue to serve London 24/7 throughout Christmas and New Year. To help those on duty share in festive spirit, a hamper of goodies will be waiting for each team when they arrive at the helipad, from 24th December to 1st January.
London’s Air Ambulance has been shortlisted for the Air Ambulance Service Award in the Health Business Awards 2017 in recognition of our newly remodelled Physician Response Unit (PRU).
The British Safety Council has celebrated the work of the emergency services at its annual awards luncheon in London. We were honoured to be presented with a Special Sword of Honour Award alongside representatives from the Metropolitan Police Service, Greater Manchester Police, London Ambulance Service, North West Ambulance Service, London Fire Brigade, British Transport Police and the RNLI.
The award was given in recognition of the emergency services’ heroism and dedication to protecting the safety & health of people living in the UK.
Last week, we were pleased to receive a new portable helicopter landing site lighting system, made possible thanks to funding from the HELP Appeal. The new HEMS-Star portable lighting set costs nearly £9000 and will be an essential resource for our helicopter crews. It is designed for rapid deployment to provide safe and effective marking at designated or ad-hoc helicopter landing sites.
What happens when you put our medical crew, operational staff, CEO, ex-patient and supporters in a tent in the desert to compete in the “toughest footrace on earth”? It’s only four months until we find out.
A team of London’s Air Ambulance employees and supporters are now preparing for April 2018, when they will tackle the epic 250km Marathon des Sables (MdS). Lasting six days, this race was described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as the hardest thing he has ever done.
