Twilight - Speaker Graham Foster

UPDATE ON AIR AMBULANCE

Members of Henley Rotary Club welcomed a representative of the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance to their twilight meeting at the Red Lion Hotel on Tuesday.

Graham Forster, a volunteer for 16 years, had travelled from Bracknell to give Rotarians an overview of the charity which they had supported several times in the past..

Mr Forster, whose day job is in health and safety and who previously volunteered for many years with the St. John Ambulance organisation, told how the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance had come into being in 1999, with an injection of cash from the Automobile Association who were supporting five other similar charities, and became incorporated in 2002.

With the base having been relocated in 2007 from White Waltham to R.A.F. Benson, the original helicopter had been replaced in 2008 by an EC135 Eurocopter, with the last three registration letters BOB, reflecting the three counties the trust served, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The new helicopter was large enough to be able to carry an accompanying relative as well as the injured person, particularly helpful if a child was involved.

In addition, this helicopter lands on skids, not wheels, and he gave a splendidly alliterative description of the places where it could land, taking into account size, shape, surface, slope (not more than 15 degrees) and surroundings (for instance the presence of power lines which although visible easily from the ground are not so distinguishable from the air).

A recent survey of the missions undertaken since 1999 showed that, of some 16,500, a third of those who were rescued would not have survived without being airlifted.

Emphasising the absolute necessity to continue the fund-raising, he pointed out that the Government, through the NHS, only paid the salary of the paramedics working with the crews and all other expenditure, (including for instance the supply of night vision goggles costing £18,000 per pair) had to be raised by the charity. He detailed the various methods of fund-raising , including the weekly lottery, which had raised £3.9 million last year.

There were also “bag-it-up” clothes recycling and 3,000 yellow collection boxes, whilst Gift Aid reclamation of tax last year on donations had raised £75,000.

After questions, the club’s president-elect, Maria Bunina, thanked the speaker for his talk and assured him that Henley Rotarians would continue to support the charity.