Let’s be brutally honest about this. The North West Air Ambulance saves lives. It’s as simple as that. They save lives. They get to places that road based ambulances struggle to reach. They get there faster. And from there they get straight to the hospital. No roads. No corners. No slowing down for traffic lights. They’re there in a matter of minutes, and with the kinds of accidents they deal with, minutes count. It really is the difference between life and death.
The operation to provide this service comes at a cost. A big cost. Somewhere in the region of £4 million a year at the time of writing.
The Bent and Bongs Charitable Trust selected the North West Air Ambulance as one of the main beneficiaries of the 2011 festival, and so on the morning of May 28 a couple of members of the Bent and Bongs Charitable Trust Committee ventured out to a windy and chilly Barton aerodrome to hand over a cheque for £5,000. This donation might seem like a drop in the ocean of the £4m required to operate the service each year but every bit really does help. We were told by the crew that this amount might well cover the cost of the next flight; and that’s potentially a life saved.
So as you think back to the beer festival, that tenner you swapped for a handful of beer tokens might just be one of the tenners that went towards the donation to the air ambulance.
Drink beer! Save lives. There are worse things to do!