Together, we CAN help air ambulance patients

The way the charity Helipads For Hospitals
operates has changed.

Its aims remain true to the vision of its founder, John Nowell, who flew helicopters for the RAF and who helped train Air Ambulance pilots… to increase the number of helipads around the UK in order to improve the medical outcomes of patients flown to hospitals.

The charity had targeted Leicester Royal Infirmary and Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, as priorities one and two. However, both hospitals have indicated that they do not consider a helipad as their priorities in the near future.

Also, it had been assumed that aluminium, mainly drinks cans, could be recycled, with additives, to make the raw material for helipads. However, it is now accepted that this may not be possible.

Thanks to litter-pickers across Leicestershire and the region, hundreds of thousands of cans and other items of litter are being removed from public places and roadsides. Their work is continuing and is commendable.

John and his volunteers are continuing to collect aluminium and Helipads For Hospitals will sell the alloy and will give the proceeds to the HELP Appeal charity https://helpappeal.org.uk/   

The HELP Appeal is organised and co-ordinated by The County Air Ambulance Trust. It is a registered charity in England and Wales (1057063) and Scotland (SCO45963). It raises funds to provide helipads for hospitals across the UK.

Because of these significant changes, the Helipads For Hospitals website www.helipadsforhospitals.org.uk is out of date and has been suspended while it is updated. Please bear with us… and keep in touch via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HELIPADSFORHOSPITALS-106734214170955

• By picking up cans YOU can reduce litter, improving our local environment
• By recycling aluminium cans, YOU can reduce the need to mine bauxite, the raw material, and save energy
• By donating cans to Helipads For Hospitals (H4H) YOU could save lives

How can you donate cans?

It’s easy… just e-mail Helipads4Hospitals@gmail.com giving us your street address (including postcode for our SatNav), your telephone number(s) and the number of bags or cans you have.

How many cans are needed?

We have recently reviewed our earliest estimates about how many cans we will need for each helipad. We know a helipad will require about 80 tonnes of aluminium. We are now working on the basis of the charity needing about 5.7 million cans for each helipad.

Where can you donate cans?

The current sites of our Big Red Bins are:

BRB 0001	Shepshed	Britannia St, Shepshed, Loughborough	LE12 9AE
BRB 0002	Ruskington	St Georges Academy, Sleaford Rd, Ruskington, Lincs	NG34 9BY
BRB 0003	Sleaford	Sleaford High School, Jermyn St, Sleaford, Lincs	NG34 7RS
BRB 0004	Ruskington	Winchelsea Centre, High St N, Ruskington, Lincs	NG34 9DY
BRB 0005	Sleaford	Carre’s Grammar School, Northgate, Sleaford, Lincs.	NG34 7DD
BRB 0006	Stamford	The Cattle Market, Stamford, Lincs	PE9 2WB
BRB 0007	Sleaford	Hockmeyer Motors Ltd, Lincoln Rd, Sleaford, Lincs.	NG34 8NP
BRB 0008	Barrow upon Soar	Co-op Car Park, 19-21 High Street, Barrow Upon Soar, Loughborough	LE12 8PY
BRB 0009	Bourne	Corn Exchange Car Park, 3 Abbey Road, Lincolnshire	PE10 9EF
BRB 0010	Belton	Belton Recreation Ground, Church Street, Belton, Loughborough Leicestershire	LE12 9UG

But soon we hope we will have more BRBs…. Watch this space

You can see from the photos on this page that several Rotary clubs are supporting H4H by collecting tins and by donating the £720 (inc VAT) to provide Big Red Bins. In fact Rotarians are seeking a matching grant so for every £360 they raise or receive in donations, they can get a further £360, effectively halving the price.

So, if you or your employer has £360 — or even £720 — tucked away in a piggy bank, we would love to hear from you!

How can you help further?

Empty your cans fully — spillages of even a few drops of drinks per can can make our vehicles really stink! (Guinness and Coke seems to be the worst mix).

But empty cans take up a lot of space, so if you can crush your cans (even if just by stamping on them) they take up a lot less space in our vehicles. That means we don’t have to make so many journeys, saving time and fuel.

Members of several Freecycle groups have generously donated one-tonne builders’ bags which are an integral part of our logistics operation. If you have any spare big bags, please let us have them.

Last edited: 18:45 on Monday, May 17, 2021