NATIONAL AIR AMBULANCE WEEK: GIVE AN HOUR TO HELP THE LINCS & NOTTS AIR AMBULANCE

To mark National Air Ambulance Week (NAAW) on 9^th - 15^th September, the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance is calling for people across the two counties to help raise awareness and funds for the life-saving Charity.

Over the last 25 years, the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance has responded to more than 20,000 potentially life-saving missions. On average, the medical crew attend 3 incidents every single day, where they provide the equivalent of a hospital A&E department to people suffering from the most serious of illnesses and devastating injuries directly to the scene of an incident.

To mark this event, the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance will be raising awareness through NAAW’s official Golden Hour campaign.  Whilst the ‘Golden Hour’ often refers to the celebratory last hour of the working week, it has a very different meaning for people with a life-threatening injury or medical emergency.  It is the first hour following such injury or illness when receiving critical life-saving care increases the chance of a patient’s survival.

The national Golden Hour Give an Hour campaign, which will take place at 4pm – 5pm on Friday 13^th September, will highlight how vital it can be to receive rapid critical care within the first ‘Golden Hour’ of a life-threatening injury or medical emergency.

The Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance is asking companies and supporters to give an hour by either donating an hour’s profit from their company, donating an hour’s pay or donating an hour of their time to help raise awareness of the Charity’s life-saving work.

George Overton, Director of Fundraising & Communications at Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be taking part in this year’s brand-new Golden Hour campaign, as part of NAAW.

“We are so grateful for the fantastic support we receive every single day from our local community and businesses from across the two counties. NAAW is an opportunity for us to give all local Air Ambulance charities a national united voice, promoting all the hard work which goes on not only during this week, but every single day of the year.

“We’re hoping that many of our supporters can get involved, help spread the word and raise funds for our life-saving work during the week. Without the support and generosity of our local communities, we simply would not be able to do what we do and continue saving lives every day.”

As part of their Golden Hour campaign, the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance will be running a series of live broadcasts from 4pm – 5pm on Friday 13^th September, highlighting the need of their life-saving service across the two counties.

George added: “We will be marking Golden Hour with a series of live broadcasts across our Facebook and Twitter pages. Our live broadcasts, one of which will take place live from our airbase at RAF Waddington, will help to raise awareness of our life-saving work whilst providing a fun, quick and simple way for people to find out more about our Charity and how they can get involved.

“We’re hoping that everyone can tune in to these videos between 4pm – 5pm and share across their own social media pages to help spread the word of how vital our service is amongst our local community.”

You can watch the live broadcasts via the Charity’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Ambucopter) or Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/LNAACT) between 4pm – 5pm on Friday 13^th September. All live broadcasts will be saved to the Charity’s Facebook and Twitter pages for viewing at a later date.

If you’d like find out more about how you can support the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance, visit www.ambucopter.org.uk or call 01522 548 469.