THE Wiltshire Air Ambulance Shop in Maristow Street has proudly opened its refurbished shop.
The shop’s facelift is well deserved as it has raised around £1.25million for the appeal since it opened almost 14 years ago, and has not had any renovations in that time.
The Wiltshire Air Ambulance shop’s refurbishment is of timely importance. Since the recent closure of the Devizes shop, the Westbury shop is now the appeal’s only outlet.
The shop was closed over the Easter weekend as Westbury Rotarians worked hard to redecorate and recarpet the premises to give it a new lease of life.
Dot Whitehead, shop manager, said, “It’s brilliant. We’ve had the whole bottom two rooms painted, decorated, cleaned, new carpet, the lot. It’s like a different place and customers think it’s fantastic. I just can’t believe it’s true!
“The Rotary have done so much, not just painting but clearing stock and putting stock back.”
Westbury Rotary Club also donated £200 to the appeal at the grand re-opening on Wednesday 27th April. Travis Perkins, Gillman’s Carpets and Flooring, and Davies Ironmongers have all contributed to the revamp and, along with the Rotary Club, an anonymous donor has made a large contribution to the re-carpeting of the shop.
The Westbury shop has been a crucial way for Dot, the shop volunteers, and the public to help the appeal, but as Dot says, “support it or lose it. I’m very proud of it, I’ve met so many lovely people and could not fault the staff – we’re all volunteers.”
Over the years the crews of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance have attended thousands of incidents. Sadly almost half the incidents are road traffic accidents, but it also gets called out to horse riding and sports injuries, industrial and farm accidents, fires and medical emergencies.
The helicopter, an MD 902 Explorer, always flies with a crew of three which includes the pilot, the police observer and the paramedic. You can find out more about the air ambulance at www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk
