22 Sept 2008 - The Freemasons’ Grand Charity helps to keep air ambulances flying

The potentially life-saving services provided by eighteen air ambulances have been supported with a grant of £180,000 from The Freemasons’ Grand Charity. The announcement of how the grant has been shared between the services is made as National Air Ambulance Week (22-28 September 2008) begins.

Air ambulance charities across England and Wales collectively fly around 17,500 missions every year at a cost of £0.5 million per week. The money to fund this work is met almost entirely by donations from the public.


Earlier this year, Provincial Grand Lodges were invited to nominate a service to receive a £4,000 share of the total grant and throughout the summer months representatives of the Provincial Grand Lodges have been visiting helipads to meet crew and present the donations.

The Provinces of Cheshire, East and West Lancashire pooled their cheques and together, on 4th November 2008, representatives of each Province visited the Airport where, after being checked through security, they were able to inspect the helicopter and present a combined cheque for £12,000 to NW Air Ambulance.

The photographs show Derek Thornhill, APGM from East Lancashire, Terry Hudson APGM, West Lancashire,
and Eric McConnell, the Provincial Grand Charity Steward for Cheshire.

Thanks to John Topping of the Province of West Lancs Communications Team who attended to take the photographs.

For details of how the £180,000 grant has been shared between the air ambulance charities, visit:
http://www.grandcharity.org/pages/air_ambulance_charities.html

Visit The Freemasons’ Grand Charity website at www.grandcharity.org
For further information contact Natasha Treweek on 020 7395 9394.