The Air Ambulance Service, a Rugby-based life-saving charity, has managed to carry out 30,000 emergency helicopter missions to save lives. This milestone has been achieved by the charity after being operational for 15 years, running only on donations from the public and zero government funding.
Missions Carried Out with Two Emergency Helicopters
There are two emergency helicopters being operated under the charity – the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance otherwise known as DLRAA and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, also known as WNAA. In addition to these, the charity also operates critical care cars for ground ambulance.
This fleet of emergency medical care aircrafts and vehicles cover an area of 3,850 miles and they have an average response time of 13 minutes. During 2017, the Air Ambulance Service managed to carry out a total of 3,547 missions. 39% of these missions were a result of road collisions, while 25% of them were due to medical emergencies. The remaining missions were due to sports-related incidents, falls, and accidents.
Donations Funded the Air Ambulance Service Missions
The charity operates fully from donations from the public and does not receive any funding from the government. Recently, the Rugby Rokeby Lions Club helped raise £3,600 for one of the helicopters operating under the charity. Fundraisers from this club have managed to raise more than £50,000 till date for the charity.
Their recent donation was raised in 2017 at the Lions’ Annual Sponsored Walk, which took place at Draycote. Both the DLRAA and the WNAA will be extending their hours of operation by the end of this year. They plan to provide 24 hours of service for 365 days a year, with hopes of saving more lives at all hours of the day.
