Tower Lottery fundraisers representing The Air Ambulance Service were invited to meet Pilot Joe Moore and Paramedic Gary Alexander at Coventry Airport this week. Joe and Gary fly onboard the helicopter that predominantly covers Warwickshire and Northamptonshire area and they took the time to talk fundraisers through their role and some of the challenges they face. It was fascinating to hear first-hand from the people on the frontline whose actions save countless lives every day and for the fundraisers to ask some of the questions that they get asked by members of the public when trying to recruit lottery players.
The Air Ambulance Service, which runs Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance, is due to celebrate some significant milestones in 2018 as the respective charities are 10 and 15 years-old. In this time, their helicopters and road vehicles have conducted over 30,000 missions and in March 2018 alone, this figure will top 300. It was therefore pleasing for the fundraisers to hear that the work they do accounts for the single biggest revenue stream that the charity has and without their lifesaving lottery, the service would not exist as it does today.
All Tower Lottery fundraisers present were able to have their photographs taken alongside the helicopter and we provides each of them with a laminated copy of this picture that we encourage them to show people to confirm they are genuine fundraisers.
Tower Lotteries run and administrate The Air Ambulance Service Lottery as an External Lottery Manager. We have done this since the lottery began in 2008 and the charity now boasts nearly 70,000 paying members. This generates vast amounts of money for the charity and we estimated that approaching 4 in every 7 missions is funded directly by lottery subscriptions. This is a tremendous achievement and directly highlights the positive impact that members make to their local air ambulance.
If you are interested in fundraising for The Air Ambulance Service, ring Mark Sullivan on 0333 577 5707.