Cornwall Air Ambulance appeals for unwanted Christmas presents to be donated

Do you have any unwanted Christmas presents – or are you having a New Year clear out? Cornwall Air Ambulance is appealing for people to donate good quality items to our charity shops.

Our retail stores fund around one in every four of our critical care missions across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Your crew are called out to around 1,000 of these lifesaving missions every year.

We’re asking for people to bring their pre-loved quality items to one of our shops in Bodmin, St Austell, Camborne, Truro, Helston, Newquay or Wadebridge, which all re-opened on 4^th January.

Anyone planning to donate items is asked to please call the store ahead, to make sure they have the capacity and space to accept donations.

Joanne Harris, Retail Area Manager for Cornwall Air Ambulance, said: “We are extremely grateful for every donation that people bring into our shops, which help us to continue our lifesaving work. Gift Aid is also incredibly important to us, as this makes your donation worth an extra 25%, at no extra cost to you. Over the last year we have claimed over £31,000 from Gift Aid through our seven retail stores, thanks to the generosity of people like you. It’s a really easy way that you can support us and make those unwanted presents and items even more valuable.”

When dropping off your items, and if you are a UK tax payer, we ask you to please complete our Gift Aid form, so we can claim an additional 25% of the items sale at no extra cost to you. This makes a massive difference to us – and last year our Gift Aid total alone managed to fund an additional six missions.

Those are missions which have helped people like Alan, who suffered a cardiac arrest behind the wheel while driving a school coach on the Roseland.

Alan had technically died at the scene. Local people rushed to help and all the children were safely evacuated from the vehicle.

Alan was given CPR and one person managed to get a defibrillator from a nearby garage, so he could be shocked. Members of the public helped out until the Cornwall Air Ambulance critical care paramedics arrived.

The crew treated Alan and airlifted him to Treliske Hospital in Truro, where he remained in an induced coma for four days.

He had a battery-operated defibrillator fitted along with a pacemaker, and has since made a good recovery. Three years later, Alan has not had any further problems with his heart.

Gift Aid is a government scheme enabling charities to claim extra funds out of tax already paid by you. For every £1 raised from a sale of Gift Aided goods, we can claim 25p from HMRC, making that sale worth £1.25. The money is claimed out of the tax you pay the government, so it doesn’t cost you – or Cornwall Air Ambulance – any extra.