As many of you would've seen, at our Duchy Ford Show Weekend on the 1st & 2nd June of this year, we raised a whopping £4,000 for our two chosen charities: Cornwall Air Ambulance and Cornwall Blood Bikes.
Club members, and volunteers from Cornwall Air Ambulance and Cornwall Blood Bikes, at the Inn for All Seasons, receiving their cheques.
The Cornwall Air Ambulance, who cover both Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, provide critical care to seriously sick and injured people. Responding to over 1,000 missions annually, their crew is there at a critical time when every second matters. Operating with no direct government support towards running costs, they rely on the generosity of the public to keep them flying 365 days a year. Taking to the skies in 1987, Cornwall Air Ambulance was the very first air ambulance in the UK. They have since completed more than 32,000 missions, with that number increasing every day. Given the county’s isolated beaches, rural settlements and challenging road networks, their service is vital to the residents that live here and the tourists that visit Cornwall. Most recently, the CAA have launched their 'HELi2' appeal to help purchase a second lifesaving helicopter to support their patients. 'A new AW169 helicopter will enable us to deliver more missions, advanced care – and in turn, help us save even more lives. This will be the first time that Cornwall Air Ambulance has owned two aircraft and will put us at the forefront of air ambulance critical care provision in the country. Next generation helicopters don’t come cheap, but the good news is that we already have most of the money towards the cost of a new one. We’re now launching the HELi2 Appeal, to raise the remaining £2.85million needed to purchase this second helicopter for our patients,' says the CAA website. So far, a total of £1,080,000 has been raised, but more is still needed to fund the appeal - you can check out more information here https://cornwallairambulancetrust.org/heli2-appeal/
The Cornwall Blood Bikes are are a team of volunteer members who are dedicated to providing a weekday ‘out of hours’ service, from 17:00 to 07:00, and a 24 hour Weekend and Bank Holiday service, supporting their NHS partners with whom they have formal agreements to deliver essential Human Blood, Pathology Samples, Medication, Medical Equipment, Medical Notes and occasionally Donor Breast Milk to the NHS hospitals and hospices throughout Cornwall and beyond. Cornwall Blood Bikes was founded at an inaugural meeting of seven volunteers held in Pensilva, Cornwall on 27th January 2011, and received ‘Registered Charity Status’ on 2nd February 2011, becoming fully operational in July 2012. They are members of the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB), whose membership of blood bike groups is countrywide and encompasses hundreds of motorcyclists who freely volunteer their time to the service, some groups boasting in excess of three decades of continual service to the NHS and the wider community. You can read more about what events the CBB are covering here https://cornwallbloodbikes.org/events-calendar/
We had the great pleasure of meeting volunteers from both the Cornwall Air Ambulance, and the Cornwall Blood Bikes, at our monthly club meeting on the 4th July at the Inn For All Seasons, where we handed over the £2,000 cheques to each charity. Club member, Jenni Lunn, managed to speak on Radio Cornwall about the money we raised, and what we do as a club, on the morning of the 4 th July. If you missed it on the radio, never fear you can catch up on BBC Sounds via this link (you can skip to our section, 14:00 to 21:35) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0j4p9sv
None of us ever know when we may need to use either of these services ourselves, and it's so important to continue supporting causes like these.
Until next time,
Mark
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