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East Anglian Air Ambulance, where the Duke of Cambridge worked as a pilot for two years until 2017, has been involved in more than 30,700 life-saving missions since it was founded 21 years ago.
Crews are called out on average eight times a day from the charity's bases in Norwich and Cambridge to patients at the roadside, in the city, countryside and coast across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. This year, so far EAAA has been on more than 329 helicopter missions, over 345 rapid response vehicle jobs and helped more than 440 patients.
When the charity started it had a single helicopter, one pilot and a paramedic flying one day a week. The crew now includes specialist pre-hospital doctors and critical care specialists, two helicopters and two rapid response vehicles, operating 24/7 every day of the year. It was the first air ambulance in the country to attend helicopter emergency medical incidents in darkness to unknown and unlit sites. The ground based staff cover roles including support services, aftercare and fundraising to help raise the £15m a year it needs to operate.
During the pandemic EAAA launched “letters to the frontline” with ground-based staff sending front line staff emails offering support and sharing news.
In December EAAA held a charity-wide review of the year where staff talked about their journey and an artist, who listened in, created a large mural as a permanent visual reminder of 2020 which is going on display at its offices.
