30
Jul
Charity makes generous £300,000 donation towards new Yorkshire Air Ambulance air base
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A charity has made a generous £300,000 donation to Yorkshire Air Ambulance to support its new northern airbase near Ripon.
HELP Appeal, which supports NHS trusts to fund helipads, made the donation to the air ambulance to help develop a helipad at its new base.
After years of searching for a suitable site, the charity announced it had agreed to buy land on the outskirts of Skipton-on-Swale, six miles north-east of Ripon, in November last year.
The contribution will go towards the £415,000 required to construct the helipad, which will ensure YAA’s helicopters can take off and land directly from the new base.
Steve Waudby, director of aviation at Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said:
We are incredibly grateful to the HELP Appeal for their outstanding generosity. Having a purpose-built helipad at our new base is crucial to the efficiency of our operations.
It will enable our crews to mobilise quickly, ensuring that we are always ready to respond to emergencies across Yorkshire. This donation takes us one step closer to achieving our vision for a world-class facility that will serve the region for decades to come.
Robert Bertram, chief executive of HELP Appeal, said:
We are proud to donate £300,000 towards the construction of a new helipad at Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s new base. This funding is a direct investment in the lifesaving work carried out every day by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance team.
By supporting the construction of this helipad, we’re helping to ensure they can continue responding swiftly and effectively to emergencies across the region. This donation has only been made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our HELP Appeal supporters, whose commitment to enhancing emergency care makes projects like this possible.
The new base, just three-and-a-half miles from its current base at RAF Topcliffe, will be a purpose-built version of YAA's Nostell Air Support Unit near Wakefield.
For over a decade, YAA has operated as a tenant at RAF Topcliffe, and although it has benefitted from the support of the Royal Air Force, the British Army’s 4th Regiment Royal Artillery and the local community, the charity has for some time hoped to establish a purpose-built base of its own.
An architect's impression of how the new base might look
Yorkshire Air Ambulance secured planning permission for the new base in June this year.
Construction is expected to start on the site soon. Once completed, the facility will provide long-term security and improved infrastructure, including state-of-the-art training environments, dedicated crew accommodation, and enhanced wellbeing facilities.
Skipton-on-Swale is strategically located for YAA, as it will be able to reach any part of the region from the new base within 20 minutes to answer calls to cardiac arrests, road traffic collisions, sporting injuries and other serious incidents.
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