Church Wilne Rotary Club welcomed Collette Richardson and Charlotte Marson from the Air Ambulance Service to a special evening at the Trent Lock Golf and Country Club on Monday 17th November as the culmination of the club's charity horse ride held in September.

President Geoff in his welcome introduced the main horse ride sponsors Graham and Karen Cresswell of Karygary Horse Feeds along with the many others and the various landowners.

The horse ride had raised £8,380 along with a bucket collection at the Derbyshire Show at Elvaston in June which raised a further £1,072 with thanks to the Barker boys and Ed Hicklin. Cheques were presented to Collette and Charlotte during the evening which were split equally between the Derbyshire Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance and the Children's Air Ambulance.

Collette gave a wonderful update on both charities and said since its formation in 2008 the Derbyshire Leicestershire & Rutland AA had completed 6,000 missions with 3 to 5 per day and each mission costing around £1,700. The on board equipment is all funded by donations and she gave an update of the CPR and the advanced defibrillator and monitoring systems.

In 2013 most rescue missions were road traffic accidents followed by sporting injuries. Also last year details of the little girl "Abbi" who was
thrown off her pony in Leicestershire shattering her leg were explained, which resulted in paramedic treatment and a 6 minutes flight to Coventry hospital

The Children's Air Ambulance is completely separate and operates from the same site and is the only free of charge for critically ill children and babies. They fly the child to the specialist intensive care unit within the UK as they are often too sick to travel by road. They work along side the NHS but still without funding. As of 24th November they had completed 100 transfers with the first patient in May 2013 being taken from Scarborough to Hull in just 15 minutes. Other examples were given including flights into
London taking a least 4 times faster. Finally a flight from the Isle of Wight to Southampton took just 8 minutes with the parents following taking 5 hours.

After a year in operation the cost per mission has worked out at £2,800 per child. In summary Collette said ""Time saved can a be life saved"

Photograph left to right Collette Richardson, President Geoff Smith and Charlotte Marson.