Last month my partner and I actually managed to sneak away for a well-earned break. For a whole weekend we managed to have no children and escape far away to an exotic land … OK, we went to Wales for two days and we took the kids with us – but I did pretend that they weren’t there the majority of the time …
Driving around the snowy Welsh hills we saw many homemade signs calling, ‘Save our Mid Wales Air Ambulance’. Looking into the story, it seems that the Welsh NHS has voted to merge two of its air ambulance bases in 2026 – Welshpool and Caernarfon – leaving less coverage across North and Mid Wales.
I think it’s a shame. The air ambulance does such fantastic work getting out and saving lives in areas that vehicles struggle to reach … which would describe a lot of Wales!
I’ve never personally had to call out the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, but my family has had a few run ins!
My mum was an avid horse rider, she was devoted to her horse Charlie (made me a bit jealous sometimes!). Sunday mornings would consist of my brother and I playing rugby and my Mum disappearing off into the West Dorset countryside on horseback.
I’m actually unsure which hobby was the more dangerous. It wasn’t that rare that we had a chopper landing on the rugby pitch because someone had been injured. But the worst injury I saw was when my Mum came off her horse.
Out in the middle of nowhere, she leaned down while on Charlie to open a gate. Unfortunately, at the exact moment she reached for the gate, a donkey spooked the horse, who reared up, throwing mum off.
SMACK! She hit the ground hard, doing herself some serious damage. She was fortunate that a walker saw the fall and called 999 (I would have loved to have seen Charlie attempt to dial 999 on my Mum’s old Nokia!). Air Ambulance dispatched and she was swiftly rescued and taken to hospital. She was ultimately fine, but we just don’t know if the outcome would have been the same without the amazing work of the helicopter crew.
Not a proud day
Thinking about it, I did have one run in with the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance … although it was actually a teacher from Greenford Primary School who saved me.
We were so excited to have the crew land on the school field to show us children the helicopter and to teach us a bit about the work they did. They even let us sit in it!
We all queued alongside the beautiful yellow machine, eagerly awaiting our turn to pretend to be controlling the chopper.
Being an overly inquisitive individual, I inevitably fiddled with all the nooks and crannies as I waited, and suddenly I was stuck.
I began to sweat – profusely. My finger was trapped in a bit of metal tubing on the side of helicopter. I stayed quiet, hoping that my sweaty body would just free itself. No such luck.
Soon it was my turn to get in and pretend to fly.
My teacher looked over and saw me on the edge of tears. I’d been rumbled.
Everyone laughed.
As I said, it wasn’t actually the air ambulance crew that saved me in the end: a teacher went to the staff room and got a tub of butter out the fridge. Greased up, I managed to wriggle my finger to safety … and lived to tell the tale.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you ever have any spare change, throw it the way of your local air ambulance crew. You just don’t know when you, or someone you love, may need them. (ALSO – always watch were you put your fingers!)
