Great Days is a campaign to drive safe and responsible working practices at the Woodsmith Project.
Each January, our team is asked to vote for their favourite local charity, with the most popular in Scarborough, Whitby and Teesside nominated as our three beneficiaries for the year.
Almost £140,000 has been distributed to local charities from the programme over the last three years.
This year, the team at our Woodsmith mine site chose the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA) as their charity for 2023. We asked their Fundraising Specialist, Victoria Rogers, for more information on how our funding will help them continue to offer their life-saving support for people in the local area.
What area to do cover?
We cover an area of around 8,000 square miles. This is from the Scottish borders west to east, down to the top of North Yorkshire east side and top of Lancaster west side and everything in between. We have two bases - Urlay Nook and Langwathby. Each base has a helicopter and response vehicle.
Who will Anglo American’s support benefit?
Anyone who finds themselves needing critical pre-hospital trauma care either where high-end lifesaving clinical intervention is required and/or the patient is in an isolated/rural location. These are typically road traffic collisions, industrial incidents, medical incidents such are cardiac arrest or heart attack, falls involving open/closed fractures and head injuries or stabbings.
How much does it cost to run your charity?
Each mission (this is when we are called out) costs £5,000. We are called out 2/3 times a day but on busy days can have 12 missions. The annual cost to run the service is £8 million.
Why is this funding important to you?
We are 100% charity funded, we get no financial help from central government, local authority, Health Service or the NHS. Every penny we have to run the service is a donation or fundraising from our supporters, so support from companies like Anglo American is so crucial to us.
Quote from a GNAA team member:
“When you see the helicopter in the air it looks amazing but behind that you have to remember someone woke up that morning not knowing their day was about to take a turn for the worst! We are only called when somewhere needs us urgently, and that we are very often the only solution left to be able to save a life because of the advanced medical skills the doctor and paramedic bring to the scene and the speed at which we can transfer someone to a major trauma unit. We literally are the last and only option to save a life. Without the support of businesses like Anglo American, we wouldn't be able to continue to save lives across our region." Victoria Rogers, Specialist Fundraiser, GNAA.