Future lives depend on you

Why your help is needed now

Cornwall Air Ambulance is set to lose a massive £1million by the end of the year due to the earlier closure of its charity shops, cancellation of community fundraising and events. This could start to have huge consequences for the charity and the people of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. This sustained lack of fundraising income could significantly impact the service we provide.

Cornwall Air Ambulance is an independent charity, and although we have NHS paramedics in the team, the charity is not eligible for the millions of pounds raised for the NHS.

What we are doing

The charity acted swiftly and in accordance with government and Public Health England (PHE) guidelines to ensure we remained flying throughout the pandemic. The crew continue to attend patients, including those who are suspected Covid-19 cases, bringing their enhanced critical care skills. Under PHE guidelines, the crew are permitted to transport confirmed Covid-19 patients by air. All patients can be treated, irrespective of presenting symptoms, as suspected Covid-19 patients. The Critical Care Paramedic Team are wearing PPE for all patients and enhanced levels of PPE for the patients/procedures that carry the most significant risk of infections. The pilots are also wearing PPE and will where possible avoid any patient contact. The charity has also installed a fabric screen to segregate the cockpit from the clinical space of the helicopter to help further protect pilots, who are a scarce resource. There are no current issues with the supply of PPE, however it is an additional cost. Extensive cleaning is being carried out between missions to not only protect the crew but to protect other seriously ill or injured patients.

In these difficult times our lives have changed, but one thing that has not changed is the impact of your support.

An appeal from the crew

We don’t want anyone to be left behind because of the knock-on impact of this pandemic. We have a brand-new aircraft, with increased capabilities, the last thing we want to do is take it out of service.

But the reality is, without the funding we need, we could be looking at a reduced service in the future and that will seriously affect the number of patients we are able to reach.

The aircrew have worked hard to keep flying during the pandemic, and we have adapted our ways of working and the protective measures in the helicopter. With your help we will be able to continue to bring the level of care we currently do to as many seriously sick and injured patients as possible. Steve Garvey, Air Operations Officer

Future lives depend on you

Cornwall Air Ambulance is not immune to the effects of Coronavirus.

The more people who can step in now, take action and support the lifesaving work of the charity, the greater the chances are that we can preserve the maximum service levels and reach the patients who need us most in their golden hour of need.

This is an urgent appeal to give direct to Cornwall Air Ambulance, to keep the new helicopter flying and saving lives. Help keep families together. Future lives depend on the support of the amazing people of Cornwall.