At our March meeting, the WI presented David Scattergood a volunteer for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Charitable Trust (WAACT) with a cheque for £150. After his thanks David gave us an interesting talk about the work of this worthwhile cause. The Wiltshire Air Ambulance started fully as a joint venture with the police in 1990. The leased helicopter, 6 paramedics, 4 pilots and police observers are all based at Devizes and the WAACT contribution towards running costs is £700,000. The ambulance can get to any incident in Wiltshire within 11 minutes and last year they attended 629 incidents which included 126 road traffic, 85 sports related, 146 heart attacks, 21 paediatric collapses. They also pioneered the use of defibrillators while in flight which is now used by other air ambulances. This successful joint venture with the police ends in October 2014 when a national police service is to be introduced. It will then cost two and a half million pounds to keep the ambulance in the air! David encouraged anyone interested in volunteering time or as a fundraiser to look at the website www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk.
Next month, on Wednesday 17 April, Thomas Plant (with Hugo Marsh) is coming to give a talk and value antiques. Tickets have sold well but there are still a few left. We would like to raise as much money as possible for the 5 – 18 Counselling Project whilst at the same time have an enjoyable evening - £10 per ticket to include refreshments. (Tickets available from Kate Orton 01793 731536 or Michelle Sanders 01793 731357)
