A \u00a310.000 donation by kind hearted trailer makers can help the Wales Air Ambulance save five lives, according to the charity.<\/p>\n
Long-term supporters Ifor Williams Trailers kicked off the fundraising at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in Denbigh where they had a stand.<\/p>\n
They converted one of their trailers for use in the\u00a0 rugby line-out throwing competition with cut-out holes for targets in its tilted bed.<\/p>\n
Entrants paid \u00a31 for each go and they raised around \u00a34,000 which the company matched pound for pound and then rounded up the total to \u00a310,000.<\/p>\n
The money was presented to Debra Sima, the Wales Air Ambulance’s community fundraiser in North Wales, by Dafydd Jones and Lois Wynne, from Ifor Williams Trailers which has factories in Denbighshire and Deeside.<\/p>\n
Debra said: “We are extremely grateful to Ifor Williams Trailers for this generous donation. It\u2019s just an incredible amount of money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at missions costing between \u00a32,000 and \u00a33,000 so that can potentially save about five people\u2019s lives. It\u2019s just mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charity has carried out more than 44,000 missions since it was launched on St David’s Day in 2001.<\/p>\n
From its airbases in Llanelli, Caernarfon and Welshpool and Cardiff, an air ambulance can be anywhere in Wales within 20 minutes of an emergency call.<\/p>\n
The cash from Ifor Williams trailers has been earmarked for the Children\u2019s Air Ambulance which is based in Cardiff, from where they provide neonatal and paediatric transfers across Wales.<\/p>\n
It was all the more welcome because the Wales Air Ambulance, like other charities, struggled to raise money during the pandemic, with donations 50 per cent down at a time when demand for the service was rising.<\/p>\n
Debra added: \u201cWe\u2019re looking all the time to increasing how many missions we can do so that we can have that bigger impact because we all know the amount of demand on the emergency services is just going up and up and up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have RRVs, rapid response road vehicles \u2013 two at each airbase \u2013 and that means we can still be very proactive when the aircraft can\u2019t be out because of the great British weather.<\/p>\n
Critical Care Practitioner Carl Hudson was also hugely grateful to Ifor Wiliams Trailers.<\/p>\n
He has been with the Wales Air Ambulance Service since the base in Caernarfon was opened in 2003.<\/p>\n
Carl Said: \u201cI\u2019m in my 20th<\/sup> year now so I\u2019m the longest serving one, the only original left in Wales now and probably one of the longest serving ones in Britain.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to join the service because I could see the value that the Air Ambulance brought to everybody in Wales, but in particular to the rural communities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to bring an equity of service for everybody in Wales, whether you live rural or in urban areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly rewarding job and nowadays, as a critical care service, we\u2019re taking the A&E department to the patient now.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than getting patients to a hospital, the hospital comes to them and we can do all sorts of advanced interventions from minor surgery to full general anaesthetic.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that can happen anywhere, in somebody\u2019s lounge, on the roadside – wherever it needs to happen, it can happen.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fund-raising is the only thing that keeps us flying. If we didn\u2019t have fundraising, we wouldn\u2019t have this helicopter, or indeed, any of the helicopters in Wales. The service, the charity would not exist without people generously raising money for us.<\/p>\n \u201cIfor Wiliams Trailers have supported us for as long as I\u2019ve been working for the Wales Air Ambulance.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2018ve met the guys and girls from Ifor Williams many times over the years, raising so much money for us and we\u2019re always eternally grateful because, without that support from the communities and the businesses across Wales, we wouldn\u2019t have a service, full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Dafydd Jones, the Show Manager at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: \u201cThe line-out game went down fantastically well at the Urdd Eisteddfod and it was really busy all week.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re grateful to everybody who had a go because they played a crucial role in helping us to raise money for the Wales Air Ambulance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe charity provides a fantastic, life-saving service to the people of Wales \u2013 the crew are real heroes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt therefore it was wholly appropriate for the Wales Air Ambulance to be our chosen charity this time.<\/p>\n “Without them, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be here now so they really deserve our support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes us immensely proud to think that the money we have presented to the charity can potentially save the lives of five people.\u201d<\/p>\n