Tower Lotteries Head of Operations Richard Wild was honoured to have attended the official unveiling on the new Midlands Air Ambulance H145 at RAF Cosford on Monday 26th February. The state-of-the-art helicopter can fly additional aircrew to major incidents and travel further without the need to refuel, meaning the charity can help more people in their hour of need.
Previously, Midlands Air Ambulance charity had leased their helicopters but the arrival of the new H145 means they now own two of their fleet outright. Chairman of Trustees Brendan Connor spoke at the launch of the helicopter and said, “it was a culmination of 7 years work for the charity.” As part of his speech, The Chairman also acknowledged the significance of the charity’s weekly lottery and regular giving programme, that generates over 50% of their income each year.
Tower Lotteries have run and administrated The Midlands Air Ambulance Charity weekly lottery since it was launched in 2009. From zero members and zero income, the revenue stream has been built up over the past 9 years and now generates more than £3m a year for the charity. This has been enabled through the hard work and endeavours of fundraisers throughout the six counties the charity serves, and each week membership is showing an increase and now tops 83,000. Due to members playing by standing order or direct debit, this enables the charity to budget for this income to come in and plan for key events such as the acquisition of a second helicopter.
The new H145 will go in to operation immediately and a plethora of famous faces were on-hand at the launch at RAF Cosford. Nigel Mansell and Mike Tindall had officially taken ownership of the helicopter at Babcock Mission Critical Services in Gloucestershire before Paralympian Sir Lee Pearson CBE, Actor John Challis (‘Boycey’ in Only Fools and Horses) and Rugby World Cup Winner Neil Back MBE pushed the button to unveil the helicopter to the delight of those present.
If you are interested in helping Midlands Air Ambulance Charity by recruiting members for their lottery, contact Mark Sullivan on 07977 841206.