THE cost of running the East Anglian Air Ambulance next year will be £3m - and it gets no lottery funding or government backing.The service, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, could do with more corporate sponsorship but small fundraising activities are equally important, explained Norfolk fundraiser Laetitia Hilling on Hospital Radio Yare last week.
THE cost of running the East Anglian Air Ambulance next year will be £3m - and it gets no lottery funding or government backing.
The service, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, could do with more corporate sponsorship but small fundraising activities are equally important, explained Norfolk fundraiser Laetitia Hilling on Hospital Radio Yare last week.
She said: “Although £3m sounds a lot, for the region it is just £1 per head per year. We usually attend three to four incidents a day but there have been as many as 11.”
Ms Hilling said local groups and agencies had helped immensely, including Rotary, Round Table and the WIs, and added she would like to see a change in the rules governing distribution of lottery cash. But, in the meantime, there were plenty of coffee mornings, sponsored walks and other fundraising activities going on to help keep the service running.
The service was launched in 2000 and flying began in January 2001.
It operates 365 days a year, using two helicopters, covering more than 5,000 sq miles and a population of about three million.
For details about fundraising, making a donation or any other query, call 0845 0669 999.
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