OUR president Val Wheeler welcomed members to our September meeting and Jerusalem was sung. She reported that our recent coffee morning at Roma’s house had been very enjoyable, and that our coach for the October trip to the Forest of Dean with Brian Draper was nearly fully booked. The speaker, Mark Wilkins, spoke about the Air Ambulance Service.

He told us that he had been a helicopter pilot in the army for 20 years and that experienced helicopter pilots for the Air Ambulance were recruited from the services.

Many of their call-outs were to road accidents, horse riding accidents and climbing and sporting accidents.

The rota blades meant that a helicopter could rise vertically and could offer urgent medical help in a very short time with two paramedics travelling in each helicopter.

The Air Ambulance Service gets no NHS or government funding which is why they work so hard to raise funds.

He showed us a video, Help Appeal, which was made to raise money for more helipads as their helicopters could no longer land on hospital car parks as they provide revenue for hospitals and are now fully used.

Jessica thanked Mark for his informative talk and some members shared their experiences of a family member who had been saved by an Air Ambulance rescue.

The competition, an item related to the Air Ambulance, was won by Deana with Jessica second and Mary third and Val won the raffle.

We meet at 2.15pm at Finstall Village Hall on the first Monday in the month and new members are always welcome.