Imagine having an extra 30 staff members working around the clock to help save lives. That is the reality at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, thanks to a network of volunteers who contributed over 56,000 hours last year alone. Now, the life-saving charity is urging local heroes to step forward and join the ranks.
Volunteers' Week Recruitment Drive
The rallying cry comes just in time for Volunteers' Week, running until June 7, and the charity is on a mission to recruit fresh faces, especially to help power its network of 12 charity shops. Whether you have a few hours to spare or want to learn new skills, your time directly keeps the crew in the air and saving lives.
Currently, 270 volunteers work across the shops, with the charity aiming to increase this to 330 by the end of summer. This is particularly important as shops like Eastwood are set to double in size in the coming months.
Personal Stories of Gratitude
Mum Karen Drew, 50, who volunteers at the Eastwood shop, has joined the appeal. Karen started supporting the charity after her son Jacob was in a serious motorbike accident at age 17. The air ambulance was called and had to intubate him at the scene, inserting a tube into his airway to help him breathe, and put in two chest drains to improve his lung function. He was taken to the Royal London and made a full recovery. Now 25, Jacob has just got married, and Karen describes how they both feel they owe the air ambulance everything. Karen has also retrained as a nurse.
Retail volunteers like Karen come from all walks of life. In the Eastwood shop, the youngest volunteer is 17 and the oldest is 85. No particular skills are required, and a commitment of as little as two hours a week makes a big difference. Help is wanted in many forms, from sorting stock and pricing to helping customers.
Vikki Gunner, shop manager in Eastwood, also started working for the charity as her way of saying thank you after the air ambulance saved her life twice from diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a life-threatening condition where a lack of insulin causes harmful ketones to build up in the blood. Living in a remote part of Tillingham, she would not have made it to hospital in time without the air ambulance.
Benefits of Volunteering
According to Vikki, volunteering is a brilliant way to gain invaluable work experience, especially for young people, or a chance to share skills honed over a career. For many, it provides a confidence boost and access to a community. Vikki said: "Volunteers are the lifeblood of our shops - without them it would be so challenging to keep everything running. So many people across the county have a link to the air ambulance - it's what makes working in the shop so rewarding as so many customers come in and tell us their stories - but you don't need that, you can make a link today by coming to support us. You won't regret it!"
Karen added: "I know Jacob was one of the lucky ones. I'm so grateful to the air ambulance and pleased to do what I can to help. Working in the shop is rewarding and just good fun. For a charity that gets no government funding and relies 100 per cent on donations to keep its helicopters flying, I'm mindful we all need to do what we can - we never know when we'll need them."
How to Get Involved
Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is a charity delivering life-saving pre-hospital care to critically ill or injured patients across Essex and Hertfordshire. Anyone interested in volunteering in one of the shops or in any way for the charity should visit ehaat.org/volunteer or phone the charity office and ask to speak to a member of the volunteering team.
