Supporting the Cornwall Air Ambulance

The Cornwall Air Ambulance flies more than 800 lifesaving missions bringing vital emergency medical treatment in minutes to patients across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The charity receives no government funding towards running costs and must therefore rely on the support of the people of Cornwall and its businesses. The Cornwall Air Ambulance is on scene on average in just 12 minutes in mainland Cornwall and less than 30 minutes on the Isles of Scilly. The paramedic aircrew provide pre-hospital critical care at the scene of the incident and can go on to fly the patient to specialist hospital units in Cornwall, Devon or Bristol and even as far as Swansea.

A new generation helicopter will save time and save more lives. There are people who need the help of the air ambulance, but they can't be reached due to the limitations of the ageing MD902 helicopter and the limited equipment that it can carry. The new helicopter will be larger, more powerful, faster, can fly further and will supply the crew with technologically advanced features and equipment they need to truly exploit their lifesaving skills. The new AW169 helicopter comes with a price tag of £7.5 million. The charity has been able to save £5 million but are still £2.5 million short. This is where the heli appeal comes in. The target is to raise £2.5 million by April 2020.

With five million staying visitors and 14.7 million day-visitors to Cornwall each year it is important to ensure that Cornwall is a safe and welcoming destination. Cornwall is consistently voted as a top destination by the public, so a small local charity dealing with around 100 incidents a year involving non-residents (20% of all call outs), Cornwall Air Ambulance faces challenges like no other charity in the UK. We are delighted to join the likes of Visit Cornwall as a Tourism Business Supporter. We want to help ensure that our property owners and guests receive the best possible medical care if an incident should happen.

The Latitude50 team have visited the Cornwall Air Ambulance base located near Newquay on several occasions to understand the work that they carry out and how we can help. Here we met with the team including three of the Critical Care Paramedics and the Pilot. We got to look inside the helicopter to help us understand the need for the new helicopter (it is surprisingly small inside considering all the equipment that they need to carry). As a team, Latitude50 will be donating £1 for every booking received in 2019. We are going to be offering our guests the opportunity to make a donation at the point of booking their holiday and we are also going to be involving our property owners in the fundraising efforts.

If you would like to join us on this mission, you can either donate online or over the phone at the point of booking your holiday with Latitude50. If you are an existing property owner and would like to get involved, please call the office and ask for Katy who can talk through the various options with you.