Air ambulance lottery passes milestone million in fundraising

WILTSHIRE Air Ambulance’s Lottery and Superdraw achieved a major milestone recently by generating £1million in income for the charity.

In addition, the number of people playing the charity’s award-winning lotteries – just over 35,500 – is an all-time high.

As well as raising money to keep the charity’s helicopter flying and saving lives, members who play the Superdraw can win up to £25,000.

One of the latest winners of the Superdraw, Sharon Pottinger-Jones, of Highworth, near Swindon, scooped £22,439, less than four months after she joined. She has made a donation from her winnings to Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA).

Sharon said, “Wiltshire Air Ambulance is such a good cause. It serves the county and one day any one of us might need it. I couldn’t believe I had won the Superdraw prize, I would encourage people to take part.”

Earlier this year the charity won the Lottery Operator of the Year at The Lotteries Council Awards 2016.

Rebecca de la Bedoyere, senior fundraising manager at WAA said, “We’d like to thank Sharon for making a donation from her Superdraw winnings to Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Our lotteries are our biggest single source of income and it’s incredible to think that, simply by signing up and paying from £1 a week, our lottery members are raising enough to cover almost a third of our running costs.

“Wiltshire is a big county with a small population, so to have reached a combined membership of over 35,000 across the Lottery and Superdraw is a fantastic achievement. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all our lottery members for their support and also to the lottery canvassers who work hard to spread the word about our award-winning lotteries.

“We’d love even more people to sign up, as it really gives us a secure, reliable income that enables us to keep flying and saving lives – and of course everyone who joins is in with a chance of winning!”

Each chance in WAA’s regular lottery costs £1 a week and it has a top prize of £1,000 a week. Each chance in the Superdraw costs an additional £1 a week.  Players of WAA’s lotteries must be 16 years of age or over. For more information about the lotteries go to www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk

Air ambulance raises £20,000 in three days for new base

WILTSHIRE Air Ambulance successfully raised £20,000 in just three days recently as the charity continues to raise money towards its new base near Melksham.

The new Flight Room is planned for the charity’s proposed new airbase on land at Outmarsh Farm, Semington, near Melksham, and will be where the pilots and paramedics co-ordinate their operational activities.

The £20,000 needed for the Flight Room was raised online at the Big Give Christmas Challenge.

During the 72 hour period, Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA) staff and aircrew posted about the variety of work they do on the charity’s social media channels, resulting in more than 38,000 accounts reached on Twitter and a reach of over 35,000 on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Cheryl Johnson, head of capital appeal at WAA said, “The response to our Big Give Christmas Challenge campaign was tremendous and we’d like to thank everyone who donated, as well as our pledgers Jeffrey Thomas, chairman of Hartham Park, and The Andrew Smiley Charitable Trust and match-funders, Candis. We had support from individuals, community groups and businesses.

“The £20,000 raised will ensure that the Flight Room at our proposed new base will be equipped to the highest standards for our aircrew. The room will be at the heart of our new home and will be fitted out with state-of-the-art flight planning and mapping equipment to ensure we can still reach any part of Wiltshire within 11 minutes.

“It will enable our pilots and paramedics to have the specialist equipment and space they need to plan and prepare for each mission safely and effectively.

“There was substantial engagement by the public on our social media channels during the campaign, overseen by Natalie Luckham of Naturally Social, and we found that using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn was a great way to inform people about the variety of work that goes on by the aircrew and the charity team.”

A total of £21,590 was raised during the campaign and the excess raised above £20,000 will go to the charity’s Airbase Appeal fund.

If the charity’s detailed planning application for the Outmarsh Farm site is granted it anticipates launching the Airbase Appeal across the county in January 2017.

Full details will be on the website www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk