Latest Newsletter – The Wednesday Club

THE BLACKDOWN HILLS WEDNESDAY CLUB

Sadly, because of a very serious accident, the Buckland Singers were unable to come to us on January 8th. However, in lieu of that we had an impromptu games afternoon. There were many games on offer to choose from: Jenga, Snakes and Ladders, Connect 4, cards, Happy Families, Boggle, jigsaws and others. All in all, everyone seemed to really enjoy it such that we think we will make it a regular part of our year.

On January 22nd David Fletcher came to speak to us about life as a paramedic in the Air Ambulance Service. He told us about the number of helicopters in the country (38) from 20 air ambulance charities and about some of the money needed to keep them all flying. Helicopters are expensive to buy, £6 million, and of that money the most expensive component is the gear box which costs a whopping £3.5 million. Some charities rent the aircraft but it will generally cost each charity about £4 million to run one helicopter every year. David stressed that there is no government money involved, it is all money raised by the charity. The best source of income is from people leaving money in their wills. Each helicopter crew consists of a pilot and 2 clinicians, usually a paramedic and a doctor. David told us how they are alerted after a 999 call and how they respond and about the roles of the crew before and during the flight. Thank you, David.

Meetings for March: March 11th: ‘From Bear to Panda’ Andrew Bell talks about his journey from Russia to China

March 25th: The Royal Voluntary Service and Me a talk by our RVS representative, Mandy Turner

Meetings for April: April 8th: AGM followed by Bingo

April 22nd: Dawn Lawrence talks about The Born Free Foundation

Please do come and join us  2.30pm start Churchinford village hall.

Sally Milnes