No. Our lifesaving service is not closing.

We operate from two bases – one in Norwich and one in Cambridge. Our Norwich base remains secure and fully operational.

The total cost of securing the land and creating the new Cambridge Air Base is £14 million.

Thanks to the generosity of supporters, major donors and charitable trusts, we have already secured a significant portion of this funding through a private fundraising phase.

We are now asking the public to help us raise £8.2 million to make the new base a reality.

Cambridge City Airport will be closing by 2030, which means we must relocate our Cambridge crew.

Building a new base takes time. We need to secure land, obtain planning permission and construct a purpose-built facility that allows our crews to respond safely and quickly.

Starting now helps ensure there is no interruption to the service our region depends on.

Our helicopters and critical care cars cover Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Even with other critical care services operational in the region, without East Anglian Air Ambulance’s base in Cambridge, our Norwich-based crew would need to cover the entire patch. That could mean:

• Hundreds of people waiting longer for help
• Over 600 fewer missions in Norfolk
• 250 fewer missions in Suffolk
• 62 fewer missions in Bedfordshire each year

Our two bases work as one team, allowing us to reach patients quickly wherever they are. When someone needs advanced critical care, having two bases isn’t a luxury – it’s vital.

If both helicopters were based in Norwich, large parts of the region would be much harder to reach.

Patients in Bedfordshire, western Cambridgeshire and south Suffolk could face significantly longer waits for help. Our critical care cars would also struggle to reach many patients outside Norfolk.

Having a base in Cambridge allows our teams to respond quickly by both air and road across the whole region.

Donations for our Cambridge Air Base Appeal will go to fund the land purchase, building and fitting out of the base, and its ongoing costs to deliver our Cambridge based lifesaving service.

If we raise more than is needed to build and run the new Cambridge Air Base, East Anglian Air Ambulance will use any additional donations received to fund our highest priorities – so your support continues to help us deliver the very best care when the very worst happens.

In the unlikely event that we are not able to use your donations towards the appeal’s intended purpose, building and fit out of the Cambridge Air Base, we will put your donations to an alternative use which could include; funding taskings by helicopter and Critical Care Car, investment in new equipment and other priority areas to deliver our lifesaving service. Where possible, we will contact you to let you know if we use your donations for a secondary purpose and you can request your donation is returned, if we are unable to deliver the outcomes of our appeal.

Following Charity Commission guidance restricted donations received via cash collections, proceeds from a lottery or competition or individual donations less than £120 do not require EAAA to return donations and donations can automatically be moved to fund our secondary purpose(s).

We are committed to securing a permanent solution for our Cambridgeshire crew.

Alongside public fundraising, we are exploring multiple funding streams including major gifts, charitable trusts, corporate partnerships, Gifts in Wills and community fundraising.

Public support will play a vital role in helping us reach the total needed to build the new base.