We have been made aware by supporters and the police that canvassers from the Children’s Air Ambulance have been calling on homes in our area. Whilst we accept competition from other charities, and acknowledge that the Children’s Air Ambulance is a registered charity, we wish to draw the attention of our supporters to the following points:-

  The Children’s Air Ambulance is in no way connected to the East Anglian Air Ambulance Charity.

  The Children’s Air Ambulance (Registered Charity Number 1111780) was registered in October 2005.

  Accounts were filed for the period ended 31st August 2006. These accounts showed income of c. £47000 with costs of c.£49000. The main cost to the charity was Consultant’s fees of £42000.

 According to the Charity Commission website, as at December 11^th 2009 this charity has yet to file its statutory Annual Returns for the years to August 2007 or August 2008 – both of which are considerably overdue. Accounts for these years have belatedly been presented to the Charity Commission but are not yet available for viewing.

  According to our supporters at least one canvasser has intimated that the Children’s Air Ambulance already operate a helicopter – we are unaware that they have access to, or have ever used funds to operate, a helicopter.

  This same canvasser also claimed that the East Anglian Air Ambulance is unable to fly outside of its regional boundaries in order to transfer patients to other hospitals. This is incorrect – we have done so in the past and will continue to do so when there is a clinical benefit in doing so.

  The canvasser in question also gave the example of transporting a patient from Scotland to London as a benefit supplied by the Children’s Air Ambulance. In reality such a journey would be more likely by fixed wing aircraft than by helicopter. When challenged on this point the canvasser claimed that their aircraft had a top speed of 300 miles per hour – no civilian helicopter can reach such a speed (the top cruising speed of our helicopters is around 155 m.p.h.).

We obviously accept that people are free to donate to any Charity they wish. We do, however, wish to distance the East Anglian Air Ambulance from any of the dealings of the Children’s Air Ambulance.