Who is GWAAC?
It stands for Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (See their website HERE). They are a team of specialist crew of medical professionals who work 365 days a year, attending emergencies, on average of 5 times every day.
They cover Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, North East Somerset and North Somerset. However many of the calls they receive are outside of this area, with 108 calls being outside that area so far this year.
2019 is set to be their busiest year to date. The first half of the year saw the number of incidents attended reach 971, with 6 more months to go.
66% of missions were attended by car
33% of missions were attended by helicopter
What do they do?
“GWAAC” attend some of the very worst situations. From roadside blood transfusions, amputations to treating cardiac arrests and administering general anesthetics. They even carry a range of specialist equipment, so that they can treat patients of any age or size, whether that’s an adult or a child.
33% of incidents are cardiac arrests
18% are road traffic collisions
26% other medical emergencies such as collapse or fitting
23% other trauma emergencies such as falls, burns or drowning.
How can I help?
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity is exactly that, a charity. They rely solely on fundraising and donations.
To put it into perspective:
Β£30 is the cost of one pre-filled syringe with essential stabilising drugs
Β£175 pays for boots to keep the crew warm & dry
Β£9,000 pays for a ventilator to keep patients breathing.
Which brings me onto their new campaign…
#ChristmasMission
A message from Great Western Air Ambulance Charity:
The festive season is a time for gathering with our friends, family and loved ones to celebrate and feast together. As the nights draw in and the sparkly lights are turned on, thoughts turn to the office parties, family gatherings and mince pies. For many, it’s the chance to take a well-earned break and to get excited about the year ahead. It’s their favourite time of year.
Yet over the Christmas period, it’s a sad fact that many people across our region will be involved in a medical emergency or traumatic incident that leaves them fighting for their lives. When a life-changing incident happens, it’s mot just the person who is affected, but their family and friends too.
This Christmas the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity Critical Care Team will be working every single day across providing potentially life-saving treatment where it’s most needed to children and adults across our region. We attend over 5 incidents each day on average, and some days it’s many more. Our specialist crew bring the expertise of an emergency department directly to the person where and when they need it most.
This is a vital service, yet many people don’t realise that we’re funded entirely from charitable donations. It’s a hard job, which takes a special kind of person, but we couldn’t do what we do without you.
This festive season we’ll be working hard to keep families together for many more Christmases to come. But we need your help to ensure our crew of specialist doctors and paramedics can go where they’re needed most.
Each one of our missions costs at least Β£1,750 and could potentially save a life. This means we need to raise Β£8,750 every single day to keep our service flying.
This Christmas, we’re calling on you to help us fund as many of our Christmas Missions as we can. In doing so, you’ll be helping to save local lives.
Please help fund a #ChristmasMission
For more information and to donate visitΒ www.gwaac.com/christmas-mission or visit @GWAAC on Twitter/Instagram and @GreatWesternAirAmbulanceCharity on Facebook where you will also find real life stories of those they have helped. Make sure you check out the hashtag #ChristmasMission to find out how the fundraising is going.
*Disclaimer – Having been a fan of aviation for many years, I have previously learnt about some of the amazing work that air ambulance charities do and so I was honoured when I was asked by GWAAC to help spread the word about their #ChristmasMission. I have not been sponsored in any way to write this post but I would like to give special thanks to the GWAAC for providing the photos that appear in this post.
Great post! It’s always nice to learn about a new worthy organization during the Christmas season (I’m organizing a list of charities to donate to before the New Year). Thanks!
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Great post on such a great cause!!! People really don’t realise just how phenomenal these organizations and people are!
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I think itβs so important to support the air ambulance.
They are invaluable, I hope we never need it but without support, the reality is that they may not be there if we did need it.
Really informative post x
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Such a great cause and itβs fantastic youβre spreading word about their Christmas fundraising! Theyβre so important and there when you need them most.
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This is a lovely post and it’s so good to raise awareness for the people who give up their Christmas to save lives every year! Xx
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Lovely post. I’m very familiar with GWAAC, as they air lifted my oldest friend to hospital after her car accident. If it wasn’t for them, she probably wouldn’t be here today. They really do such important work.
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Oh my gosh, I hope your friend is ok? It just goes to show that you never know when you may need their help
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She’s OK now, but at the time she was in a coma and needed surgery. It was touch and go for a few days.
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What a great post sharing all about who they are and what they do! I found this so informative! I hope your friend is okay! All the services do an amazing job!
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Thank you for taking the time to read my post
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What a lovely post. It’s rare to read a blog post on something like this so good on you! People like them are the silent heroes of our society.
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These are the real heroes of our time! My mum was a nurse until she retired and one of her friends is on the rescue helicopter team. Fantastic humans. Didn’t know here it was a charity that does this, will look them up!
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