You might expect our most important piece of equipment to be something sleek and technical: the rotors on our helicopters, the wheels on our critical care cars, a lifesaving monitor, powerful medication, a ventilator, or portable ultrasound probes and iPads. But for East Anglian Air Ambulance, arguably, our most important piece of equipment is often something far simpler. It’s the humble collection box.
At first glance, a collection box doesn’t look like much. It doesn’t flash, beep, or fly. It doesn’t treat patients and it can’t perform surgery or take over somebody’s breathing when they can’t breathe for themself. Yet without it, our helicopter wouldn’t lift, our critical care cars wouldn’t be on the road, and our crew wouldn’t get to the side of people who need their lifesaving treatment and care. That small box, and every ounce of kindness it represents, is where missions begin.
That includes funding specialist medical equipment, advanced medication, like pain relief and sedation, and being able to provide enhanced care, like surgical procedures and blood transfusions, right at the incident scene. And your donation to a collection box does things behind the scenes that you might not even know about – like providing aftercare support to our former patients and their families during the turbulent aftermath of a life-threatening emergency, to supporting our community CPR training programmes and innovative clinical research too.
We never forget that every donation placed into a collection box, and gifts given in other ways, shows trust in our service and carries a story. It might be loose change from someone who saw our critical care car near their home. It might be a note from a family who watched our crew take off with their loved one in their hour of need. It might be a child proudly dropping in pocket money because they saw our helicopter fly over their school.
Individually, these gifts may seem small. Together, they are powerful. Over the last two years, you have raised over £137,000 through collection box donations – enough to fund 32 taskings to people who are experiencing the worst moments of their lives.
Build on a foundation of kindness, the collection box also represents connection. We belong to you, the people we serve 24 hours a day, 365 days a year across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The collection boxes and buckets that you may see at a supermarkets and village fêtes, and on shop counters and pub bars are reminders that East Anglian Air Ambulance is your air ambulance. We’re here for you should the unthinkable happen – at any time of the day or night.
So, while our yellow helicopters may be the most recognisable thing about us, the collection box – and everything it stands for – is where hope starts. It’s the quiet, unassuming piece of equipment that makes everything else possible. Without it – and you – there are no flights, no crew, no second chances.
We’re fuelled entirely by donations, without any regular government funding, so your support powers every single mission. The collection box you see in your local shop, the contactless donation machine at the nearby garden centre, and the donate button on our website is how you continue to turn compassion into lifesaving action, one coin, note, tap, or click at a time.
Support us
There are lots of ways you can help save lives by supporting us. Whether it’s making a donation, playing our lottery, taking on a personal or team challenge, joining a fundraising event, volunteering your time and skills, or even leaving a gift in your Will – every single act of kindness makes a lifesaving difference in your community. If you’re interested in becoming a collection box volunteer, we’d love to hear from you!
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