Whilst sitting relaxing on the sofa at home, Stephen, from our Wisbech store spotted an unusual request when scrolling through the Facebook newsfeed on his iPad. As Stephen explains “I came across a Fenland Citizen article for East Anglia Air Ambulances’ appeal for a fridge to help keep Prince William’s sandwiches cool at their Cambridge Base and thought that we could help the charity out”.
Prince William reportedly takes a packed lunch to work as a helicopter pilot with The East Anglian Air Ambulance Service – which serves Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex – because the base only has a small kitchen and no canteen.
Stephen contacted his manager, David, who agreed that Hughes could come to the rescue. After sourcing a suitable fridge, David & Stephen headed over to Cambridge Airport. Once there, they were treated to a cup of finest NHS tea, a quick tour and a visit to the crew room (Stephen admits that they sat in every chair to make sure they’d shared a seat with Prince William!)
The East Anglia Air Ambulance organisation is a 365 day-a-year lifesaving service working across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Since the charity’s launch in 2000, the dedicated, highly skilled medical crews on their specially equipped helicopters have helped to save the lives of hundreds of people unfortunate enough to be involved in accidents or medical emergencies in this region.
The EAAA offers a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), working in partnership with the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The service they provide has two key benefits:
Clinical expertise – their medical crews possess enhanced clinical skills thus providing a lifesaving capability
Speed – the helicopters can reach patients anywhere in our region within 25 minutes and can also transport them rapidly to hospital if required. They are flown by highly-skilled pilots.
To continue this critical work the EAAA need to raise £8.6 million this year, for which they rely on charitable donations so we’re pleased to be able to help this fantastic non-profit organisation.
Learn more about EAAA and the great work they do here.
