Bradford & District | Archive | 2007 | January | 4

Thank you - but more is needed says Air Ambulance

From the archive, first published Thursday 4th Jan 2007.

AS the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity celebrates a record fundraising year, its chief executive, Martin Eede, has issued a new year "thank you" message.

Mr Eede said he wanted to publicly thank all those who had helped the six-year-old charity enjoy a 50 per cent growth in donations over the past 12 months.

He added: "I can't possibly thank everybody who has supported us in person, but I wanted to publicly express our heartfelt gratitude to the good people of Yorkshire - and beyond - for their generosity.

"Over 14,000 people have made donations this year that we know of - and many more who we don't know - so it is important to me that everyone knows how appreciative we are. The help we received during the last 12 months has enabled us to purchase our current state-of-the-art MD 902 Explorer helicopter (albeit on a mortgage basis); open the UK's first air-tasking desk; extend our flying hours to dawn to dusk 365 days a year and buy a fast response vehicle.

"This support has enabled us to fly nearly 1,000 missions this year to all parts of Yorkshire and beyond, but we know that there were a further 300 missions we couldn't attend because we only have the one helicopter," added Mr Eede.

"Thanks also to the continued long-standing support of our volunteer groups, corporate sponsors and community organisations - and not least because of the generosity of Richard Hammond fans - YAA's exciting plans for 2007 include buying a second helicopter, which will enable us to fly to all incidents that need an air ambulance."

However, Mr Eede warned that this in itself would present "a massive new challenge" to the charity and its donors.

"Rather than the present £3,500 a day needed to keep our current helicopter operational, we will be looking at a cost of £5,500 a day to keep two airborne," he said. "I know it's a lot to ask, but it will vastly improve our service and enable us to help even more people, so I am more than confident that Yorkshire people will rise to the challenge and do us and the county proud in 2007," he concluded.