Two of our designers, Gabby and Jade recently visited the Great North Air Ambulance to discover what activities the Ward Robinson team can do to support the charity. Situated in two locations in the North, Eaglescliffe and Langwathby near Penrith, the ambulance team have a total of three helicopters available for day use and land vehicles for night time call outs. As the team weren’t on a call out at the time of the visit, Jade and Gabby were shown all the equipment inside one of the helicopters and some of the controls used to operate it. With a trained doctor on every call out, the GNAA offer significant support within the region and are often requested by the emergency services to attend incidents that are in hard to reach locations or require highly skilled assistance quickly. As Jade and Gabby were leaving the site at Eaglescliffe, the helicopter was called out to an incident and the team were up in the air within a matter of minutes.

With an annual cost of £6.7m and each mission in a helicopter costing £4,135, the fundraising element of the operation is also an integral one. The Ward Robinson team hope to engage in local events and collections to ease the pressures on the site team. This can ensure that the GNAA fundraising staff members can be better resourced for critical fundraising operations. Ward Robinson also plans to team up with their material and furniture suppliers to deliver a new breakout space for the ambulance team at the Eaglescliffe facility. With such challenging and often emotionally difficult incidents, it was made clear to Gabby and Jade that a quiet area for the team to have down time was a must.