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Two Royal Navy helicopter observers from Cornwall are hoping to break into the Christmas charts, with an original song raising money for Cornwall Air Ambulance.
Lt Cdr Phil Clark and Lt Cdr Dave Emery, both Merlin Mk2 Observers, met around 15 years ago whilst serving together in Afghanistan. As a means of therapy for coping in a war zone, the pair brought along their guitars and started to write songs together. When they returned home, they formed a band called Little Red Ambulance along with some friends and started writing music each Christmas. The band now record a Christmas song annually, and the over the last few years the songs have been raising money for charity. Last year’s song even broke into the UK’s top 20 download chart.
This year’s single, titled ‘It’s Christmas Time’, is raising money for both Cornwall Air Ambulance and The Velindre Cancer Center in Cardiff. It is the band’s eleventh Christmas song, and was written by Dave.
He said: “We decided to write a song about even though we’re grown up and adults, you still get that great feeling at Christmas time, you get nostalgic and think back to your childhood years. We made a really fun video where we dressed up in white and had a snow machine effect as well. It was a lot of fun.”
Each year the band choose to raise money for charities which are close to their hearts. Having both lived in Cornwall for many years and having served in air squadrons here, they said choosing to support Cornwall Air Ambulance was easy.
Phil said: “It has been really apparent to us the job that Cornwall Air Ambulance does, we probably have greater sensibility in that we get airborne and fly in helicopters as well. We often see the air ambulance around and about the place, having spent a long time in Cornwall, we realise that Cornwall Air Ambulance does an amazing job in reaching far out places and rural areas, where there is not a quick response time for emergency services.
“I’ve been personally affected, by knowing people who have had their lives changed for the better by Cornwall Air Ambulance turning up in time. We’re also really aware that all the funding is through donations and fundraising, and that must be a tough gig for the charity. So we wanted to help out this year. We always choose the charities that we support to be close to home and ones where we think we can make an impact.”
There is no set target on how much Little Red Ambulance are aiming to raise, but all sales of their song will go towards their two chosen charities. ‘It’s Christmas Time’ is available on all major platforms and can be downloaded from 79p.
All donations made to Cornwall Air Ambulance this Christmas will be doubled, thanks to some generous match funders.