- Transport company pledges annual £20,000 donation for next five years
- Charity-funded air ambulance helicopter will help save lives
- Newly formed charity moves closer to fundraising target
2013-01-15 — /travelprnews.com/ — Transport group Stagecoach has pledged to donate £100,000 to support a new air ambulance for Scotland.
The Perth-based company has agreed to make an annual donation of £20,000 for the next five years to Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA). The money will go towards funding Scotland’s first and only charity-funded air ambulance helicopter.
SCAA was formed in 2010 and, in November last year, was approved by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Ambulance Service who will deploy the new aircraft when it goes into service.
The new air ambulance – which will be based at Perth Airport at Scone – will help deliver a more extensive front-line emergency response service across the country. It will help support the Scottish Ambulance Service’s two existing publicly-funded air ambulance helicopters which are based in Glasgow and Inverness.
The charity hopes to raise £1.5 million in order to launch the new aircraft. Thanks to donations from Stagecoach and a number of other organisations, SCAA’s fundraising campaign is already starting to take off and hopes are high for a spring launch for Scotland’s newest lifesaving resource.
In addition, around £1.5million will be needed to sustain the SCAA helicopter each year which the charity hopes will come from corporations, trusts, businesses, communities and the public.
Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Sir Brian Souter said: “This air ambulance will help support the wonderful job done by our emergency services at the moment. We are delighted to be able to support the launch of this important new service which will help save lives and make a real difference to people across Scotland.”
SCAA Chairman John Bullough said they were “extremely grateful” for the generosity shown by one of the UK’s biggest public transport groups.
“As a major transport operator, Stagecoach knows the vital need for speedy response when things go wrong,” he said. “SCAA will enhance and expand immediate emergency medical response across Scotland, saving lives and bringing vital relief to those most in need.
“When Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance launches for service in the spring it will be flying into the heart of every community in the country,” added Mr Bullough. “But we can’t do it without the support of the public and the business community and Stagecoach has provided a fantastic donation which will help this lifesaving charity fly.”
Stagecoach Group also previously donated £10,000 to SCAA in 2010 and, for many years, it has invested between 0.5% and 1% of the profits from its transport operations in the UK and North America in good causes. Hundreds of thousands of pounds a year go to help health charities, education campaigns and local community projects. Stagecoach also gives match funding to complement many fund-raising activities by its employees, as well as providing significant in-kind support by donating free transport and assisting with employee secondments to charitable projects.
For more information about Stagecoach Group visit www.stagecoach.com
Further information about SCAA can be found at www.scaa.org.uk
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Stagecoach Group
• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 7,800 buses and coaches. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on Stagecoach’s buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates between around 60 towns and cities across the UK.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.
• Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,900 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. Megabus.com links around 120 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and transit services, contracted bus services, charters, sightseeing tours and a small number of school bus services.
For media enquiries, please contact: Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email: media@stagecoachgroup.com