Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, recently attended a reception at the House of Commons, hosted by the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust to be briefed about the work that they do for his constituents in Essex.
The Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust is a charity that provides a free life saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service for the critically ill and injured, with specialist doctors and paramedics who are able to rush to the scene of accidents to deliver advanced clinical care normally found only in the hospital Emergency Room.
The charity costs about £5.3 million pounds every year to run, with an average cost of £2,500 per mission, and has been funded largely by donations since it was established in 1998. Since then, over 12,500 missions have been undertaken with an average of 1-2 per day.
At the reception, Mark was invited to visit their new headquarters Earls Colne which he is now hoping to do sometime in the autumn.
Commenting on the event, Mark Francois said:
"I have always been a supporter of the vital work that the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust undertake. It is an important service which is kept going largely by the generosity of the people of Essex and Herts. I was very interested to meet members of the charity and I look forward to visiting their headquarters later in the year, to see members of this vital charity in action.