Yorkshire Air Ambulance is flying high after staff in the Sheffield office of international law firm CMS chose the rapid response emergency service as its charity of the year.
The office, which has 15 partners, 128 lawyers and 111 business services and support staff, advises major businesses across many sectors including healthcare, financial services, infrastructure, real estate and advanced manufacturing.
Its charity committee chose Yorkshire Air Ambulance to support during 2018 and fundraising events planned include the annual charity ball in May which is hoped will generate around £10,000.
CMS Sheffield Employment Partner Tracey Marsden also heads the office’s charity committee. She said: “We know just what a vital service the Yorkshire Air Ambulance provide, a service that anyone of us could need at any time, but it was a real eye opener that the charity receives no Government funding.
“We are encouraging everyone to get involved with fundraising and also volunteering their time to support the life-saving work of the air ambulance here in South Yorkshire.”
Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) serves five million people across Yorkshire and carries out over 1,250 missions every year. The charity operates two, state-of-the-art Airbus H145 helicopters and needs to raise £12,000 every day to keep saving lives.
During 2016/17, the YAA flew 208 missions in South Yorkshire treating 172 patients at the scene and airlifting 68 people with life-threatening injuries or medical conditions to a major trauma centre.
With a purpose-designed helipad at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital and the recent introduction of extended flying hours, the number of South Yorkshire patients benefiting from the service is expected to continue to rise.
YAA Regional Fundraising Manager Kerry Garner said: “We fly an average of three missions a week in South Yorkshire with currently around 14 per cent of all patients airlifted are flown to either the Northern General Hospital or Sheffield Children’s Hospital for specialist care.
“We know these figures will rise as we fly more missions and so the need for support from amazing organisations like CMS in South Yorkshire is even more important.
“It is why we are so grateful to all the staff in Sheffield for choosing us as their charity of the year and we very much look forward to working with them.”
CMS in Sheffield provides banking, clinical and professional risk, corporate, construction, employment, environment, health and safety, pensions, planning, disputes and real estate legal advice.
Photo: (L to R) CMS Partner Tracey Marsden, trainee solicitor Beckie Wrend with Yorkshire Air Ambulance Regional Fundraising Manager Kerry Garner.