Lifesaving air ambulance stores open early- to take in donations

The Air Ambulance Service’s retail staff have returned to their stores early this week to give the local community a chance to safely drop off donations before trading officially restarts on 12 April.

From today until the end of business on Friday (April 9) teams working at the home, boutique and superstores are asking people to call and book a timed slot when they can safely drop off preloved items they’ve been storing over lockdown.

Charity Head of Retail Gemma Ingram said: “We’re aware that our supporters may have been holding onto donations for a few months now, and with trading starting again next week, we wanted to give people in our local communities an opportunity to drop off their items in a Covid-secure way using a pre-booked appointment system.”

The enforced closures of The Air Ambulance Service stores during the pandemic have seen the charity – which operates the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance, Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, and national Children’s Air Ambulance – lose over £2.2 million in income, so these donations are a vital source of income for the charity to continue its lifesaving service.

But despite the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, to date the charity has continued to provide crucial frontline support to the NHS by attending an average of 10 potentially lifesaving missions every day throughout the crisis.

“As a charity, our mission is clear – to continue to provide critical care and lifesaving support to the NHS – but to do this we need the support of people within our communities now more than ever before.

“To donate preloved goods and help our service, all people need to do is give their local store a call to book a drop-off time. For any donations received until 18 April, people will receive a bounce-back voucher with 10% discount to be used in-store this August 2021,” explained Gemma.

The charity is also organising furniture collections between 6-9 April. To arrange these members of the public are asked to contact their local home store.

To find your local store and to book a donation drop-off slot, please click here.