Golf Club raises money for Air Ambulance heli
The Isles of Scilly Golf Club raised £375 towards Cornwall Air Ambulance's new helicopter appeal from its annual Captain's Day.
l-r: Golf Club Captain Dave Stone, Cornwall Air Ambulance agents Jan and Sam Guy,
Vice-captain Mike Skaife
Captain Dave Stone and Vice-Captain Mike Skaife presented a cheque to Cornwall Air Ambulance agents Sam and Jan Guy at the club last Friday.
Lloyds Bank will also look to match the money raised pound for pound.
Dave, who manages Lloyds on the islands, told This is Scilly: "It was my second Captain’s Day and we decided to raise money for the Air Ambulance. There was a £5 entry fee and then there were certain competitions around the course to win prizes. Lots of local businesses gave prizes for the raffle and for on the course. We raised £375, which Lloyds bank will look to double."
He thanked various islands' businesses for donating to the prizes and raffle: Tresco Estate, Juliet's Garden Restaurant, Star Castle Hotel, Tregarthen's Hotel, the Atlantic, Co-op, Lloyds Bank, Douglas Chemists, Jill May, Tanglewood Kitchen, Bishop & Wolf, The Foredeck, the Scillonian Club, Seasalt, The Farm Deli, Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, Sibley's Fuel & Marine and the Boatmen's Association.
Local Air Ambulance volunteer Sam Guy said: "This cheque will be going towards the new heli appeal, which has raised over £100,000 now. The target is £2.5 million by April 1st 2020. The actual cost of the helicopter is £7.5 million, of which they’ve already got over £5 million. But we’ve still got to maintain the ones we’ve got until April 1st 2020."
Explaining some of the advantages of the new helicopter, he went on: 'It's going to be a massive upgrade, especially for Scilly. It'll speed up the response time and there'll be a lot more they can do. Basically, they'll be bringing more of A&E to the patient, rather than taking the patient to A&E. Also the patient will be in the middle of the helicopter, so there will be 360° access, meaning the paramedics and doctor can work on a patient in the helicopter quite easily. They will also have 4G so everything they're doing will be automatically transmitted back to A&E. The paramedics are really over the moon about it. It's a new generation of helicopter that's expected to last 15 or 20 years."
Jan, who is a fundraiser for the Air Ambulance, said: "It's the same kind as the Island Helicopters, the AW169. The gear will be over top of them, attached to the structure - what's called the bridge - so when the patient is moved, it goes with them. One of the other big advantages is that it has four seats so it can carry a paramedic, a doctor, and two other people as escorts."
The couple also asked that people wishing to donate from Scilly do so via them if possible. Sam said: "The problem getting total donation amounts for Scilly is that we own the only paying in book here. If people pay money direct from Scilly to Air Ambulance in Newquay, it doesn’t get registered to Scilly. We don’t get a true figure of what Scilly is doing in terms of fundraising, which is always nice to have."
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