FREEMASONS in Herefordshire are longstanding supporters of the Midlands Air Ambulance. The Provincial Grand Master for Herefordshire, The Rev David Bowen, and his deputy, Michael Roff, recently presented a further £10,000 to the MAAC at Strensham Airbase. £6,000 came from the Freemasons of Herefordshire and £4,000 from the Masons' national charity.

On the same occasion the Provincial Grand Masters for Gloucestershire and Worcestershire also presented cheques for £4,000 each, making a total of £18,000 from the three Provinces on the day.

The Midlands Air Ambulance covers a wide area, including our county, and is an expensive operation to run. Each mission costs an average of £2,500, and each minute in the air an average of £25. The charity is entirely reliant on voluntary donations, and each county has a dedicated fundraising manager to ensure that these donations keep coming in.

Herefordshire Freemasons are very proud to have been giving substantial support for this essential charity for a number of years, which will surely continue into the future.

The Midlands Air Ambulance service operates three helicopters, one at Strensham in Worcestershire, near the end of the M50, and the others at RAF Cosford in Shropshire and Tatenhill in Staffordshire. Each is crewed by a pilot and two paramedics, or a paramedic and a doctor. One of the paramedics will generally be a Critical Care Paramedic, qualified to administer a higher level of medication. On the day of the presentation at Strensham the other was a HART paramedic, a member of a Hazardous Area Response Team.

The three aircraft between them carry out about 2,000 missions each year, which works out at an average of just under two per day per aircraft. In Herefordshire and Worcestershire 32 percent of the calls are to road traffic accidents and 26 percent to medical emergencies. 12 percent are for sports-related injuries.