Islanders asked for Air Ambulance appeal ideas
An islands' Cornwall Air Ambulance volunteer has urged residents to come forward with ideas about how to help raise money for a new helicopter.
Sam Guy told Radio Scilly that the islands raised around £30,000 for the charity last year, although he cautioned that some money is paid direct rather than through him.
Sam said: "The new helicopter will cost 7.5 million. They've been planning for this for some time and up until last year, they had got 5 million of that. When we started the New Heli appeal, we had £2.5 million to get. Because it was the busiest year ever last year for the Air Ambulance, a lot of the funds had to go towards running the helicopters. It was a little bit of a struggle last year. Newquay was the busiest place for callouts at 62 and Scilly had 58 callouts. It costs well over 2,000 a trip to Scilly, so 58 of them is a lot of money."
Last year the New Heli appeal raised just over £1 million of the £2.5m needed to bring a next generation helicopter to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by April 1, 2020.
Sam added: "We're in for a big drive this year. Scilly always punches above its weight and is incredibly generous and creative. We would like people if possible to think of events, something they can do to try to aim towards this million and a half that we need. Anything will do. If they need any advice, they can come to us or Helen Sams or Martin Dillon."
Sam and his wife Jan Guy ask that people wishing to donate from Scilly do so via them if possible so the donations are registered to Scilly.