Keeping the Rotors Turning
Report by Jim Walker, Club PRO
The Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance needs £800,000 this year (2008) to keep the service in the air. Next year it will be £1.2m and the year after £1.5m as the service expands to do a bigger and better job for Thames Valley and Chiltern.
None of this finance comes from the taxpayer via government. All of it comes from the people and businesses of the area by their voluntarily contributions at all sorts of charity events and on all sorts of occasions. These contributions, big and small, will often mean the difference between life and death for the hundreds of people helped each year.
Over the years, the Rotary club of Reading Abbey has been a constant supporter and has just donated another £600 from its general charity fund. This makes a total of over £4,000 that Reading Abbey have donated to the Air Ambulance in recent times.
All this helps, in a small way, with the running costs of the Air Ambulance, which in July this year will take on another big commitment with the delivery of the next generation helicopter, the EC135, manufactured by the giant EADS and supplied and operated by Bond. With its ability to carry the parent as well as a young child from the scene of an emergency to the most appropriate medical facility, this aircraft will further enhance the service provided by the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust.
Andrew More, President, and Peter Mason, Past President of Reading Abbey Rotary visited RAF Benson to hand over the cheque to for £600 to Lyn Paver the Chief Executive of the Trust. and Pat Conafrey, their recently appointed Income Development Manager
Another example of Rotary helping to keep the rotors rotating!