Big-hearted trailer makers have given a lift to the life-saving Wales Air Ambulance charity.
Ifor Williams Trailers kicked off their fund-raising campaign at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in Flint.
They created the UK’s biggest table football game made from a 14ft by 7ft trailer, and a giant football skittles game which proved popular at the company’s stand at the festival.
It was also their way of backing Chris Coleman’s team as they prepared for Euro 2016, Wales’s first major international tournament since the World Cup in 1958, where the team performed heroically to reach the semi-final.
After the Eisteddfod, the trailer firm continued with their fund-raising and amassed a total of £10,000.
The money was presented to Lynne Garlick, the Wales Air Ambulance’s fund-raising manager in North Wales.
The charity has carried out more than 25,000 missions since it was launched on St David’s Day in 2001, with each one costing £1.500.
From its airbases in Llanelli, Caernarfon and Welshpool, an air ambulance can be anywhere in Wales within 20 minutes of an emergency call.
A fourth aircraft was launched in Cardiff last year for its Children’s Wales Air Ambulance operation, providing neonatal and paediatric transfers.
Lynne said: “We are extremely grateful to Ifor Williams Trailers for this generous donation which is very much appreciated.
“The service we provide can greatly improve a patient’s survival and early recovery thanks to fast response times, our ability to reach difficult locations and give, rapid critical care treatment on scene before flying patients to the most appropriate hospital for their illness or injury.
“We don’t receive any funding from the Government or the National Lottery so we rely entirely on charitable donations to raise £6.5 million each year to keep the helicopters flying for Wales.
“In 2015, we introduced flying doctors on board our aircraft through a new scheme with the NHS, called EMRTS Cymru and this means we can provide even more advanced treatments, including blood transfusions and anaesthesia.”
Ifor Williams Trailers employee Dafydd Gwynedd was one of the team that manned the company’s stand at the Eisteddfod.
He said: “The football games went down fantastically well and it was really busy all week.
“The foosball was free to play and it was £1 a go for the skittles game and Ifor Williams Trailers matched the amount raised pound for pound and then topped it up to £10,000.
“The Air Ambulance provides a fantastic, life-saving service to the people of Wales – the crew are real heroes.
“We felt therefore it was wholly appropriate for the Wales Air Ambulance to be our chosen charity this time.
“I used to do a lot of voluntary work when I was younger and I used to raise money for the charity.
“Without them, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be here now so they really deserve our support.”
