How To Help Christmas Donation Appeal This Christmas, whilst many of us will be spending time with our families and loved ones, sadly, there will be some whose lives will be turned upside down due to severe illness or injury. That is why our Christmas Appeal is so important and is why we need your support to be there for patients in their hour of need. Support our life-saving crew today! A Message from Dr Laura Bland “Hi, I am Laura, one of the critical care doctors at Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance. Last year, our critical care team had the busiest year on record. In fact, over the past five years, the number of missions we have been tasked to has more than doubled from 1,112 incidents in 2017, to 2,424 incidents in 2022. Behind every number is a real person going through perhaps the most traumatic event of their lives and we do everything in our power to give those patients the best chance of survival. But we can’t do it without you!" "One such patient is young Betty Boland, who needed our help after she fell 12ft from a garage roof onto a concrete floor. Suffering from a serious head injury, Betty needed specialist care at the scene and to get to a Major Trauma Centre as quickly as possible. Without that, she could have died." Read Betty's Story We need your support now, more than ever!! Emergencies do not stop for Christmas and neither do we. There will be many others like Betty who will need our help over the festive period. With no direct funding from the Government or the National Lottery, your generous donations will help to fund each life-saving mission that costs approximately £3,500. Each year, it costs £10M to keep our helicopter, cars and specialist crew operational for 19 hours every day, 365 days a year. With the number of missions increasing every year and our operational costs rising, we need to ask for your help, so that we can be there for patients when they need us the most. It’s only with the kindness and generosity of people like you, that our team have the best training and medical equipment available to help critically ill and injured people across Dorset and Somerset. So please, if you are able, donate what you can afford and help us to reach patients who need critical care this Christmas; patients who one day could be any of us or someone we love. Your support is a life-saving gift and could help us to keep families like Betty’s together, thank you. We Can’t Save Lives Without You With your support, our team of highly skilled pilots, critical care practitioners and doctors will be ready to answer the call and be there for those who need us the most! Please select a donation amount (required) £15 Could help towards essential supplies to treat patients. £25 Could help towards a much-needed pint of blood for a patient. £50 Could help to keep a patient warm using a thermal blanket. Other Set up a regular payment Donate Manage Cookie Preferences