Music festival organisers donate thousands of pounds to lifesaving charity

Organisers of Alveley Country Music Festival made the donation to the charity at a special event on Saturday, October 24.

Organiser Steve Farrar said: "We raised £3,800 at the 2019 festival, but we weren't able to make the presentation because of Covid.

"The 2020 event was cancelled, and we actually raised £4,000 at this year's event. So we made a donation of £7,800.

"I'm a lorry driver, and I see the air ambulance out a lot. It means so much to me, it's such a great cause."

The event took place at Alveley Sports and Social Club and saw four country music bands playing throughout the day.

The donation brings the festival's total tally of support for the charity to some £16,500.

The music festival was also able to raise enough money to buy a portable defibrillator.

The vital work of the air ambulance is known all too well to Steve, as one of his volunteers had his life saved some years ago by air ambulance crews.

Steve added a poignant reminder of the need for community defibrillators too.

"We had a death on the field at our event this year, and at that point we decided we wanted to raise money for a defibrillator too," he said.

"We will also be able to take it to any event we go to."

Each year it costs in excess of £10 million to maintain the three aircraft that the charity runs, and safeguard the provision of the lifesaving service.

Each air ambulance mission costs an average of £2,500.

Each critical care car or cardiac car mission costs £224 on average.

The charity does not receive funding from the Government or National Lottery for its daily missions so relies entirely on the support and generosity of local people and businesses.

Since 1991, the Midlands Air Ambulance has responded to over 64,000 missions, making it one of the busiest air ambulance services in the UK.

The ambulance service operates from regional airbases at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, Strensham in Worcestershire and Tatenhill in Staffordshire.

Each aircraft carries a crew comprising a pilot, two paramedics or a paramedic and flight doctor, plus full life-support medical equipment.

Three rapid response vehicles are deployed if the helicopters are unable to fly for any reason.