The lasting impact of a legacy gift

One of our fantastic supporters, Anne, shares why a personal experience inspired her to remember us in her Will.

The emergency number 999 became manifest on 09/09/09 when I received a nightmarish phone call:

“Your son has been involved in a road traffic accident. He was knocked off his motorbike. We are taking him straight to theatre and then to ICU.” 

John’s injuries included multiple fractured bones and brain trauma.  

We stayed with him over the next six weeks during which he underwent a sequence of operations and experienced several medical emergencies with teams of doctors and nurses repeatedly acting to save his life. 

Had it not been for the swift response of the nearby air ambulance service prior to John’s arrival in hospital, all those many people and their medical skills would have been in vain. 

Time critical care

The time saved thanks to the deployment of an emergency aircraft, and the skills brought to scene by its crew of experienced critical care paramedics, gave John a far improved chance ahead of his arrival at hospital.

Timing was crucial and there was no question that John would not have survived the same journey to hospital by road. 

I’ll always be immensely grateful to the multiple teams and skilled individuals involved in John's recovery, but it was the local air ambulance that gave him the opportunity to survive at all.

Surviving and then thriving 

Fourteen years later and John is happily married with a wonderful 11-year-old son (who is already taller than me, his Nana!). 

Repaying a debt that matches the extent of my gratitude feels impossible; I am incredibly grateful that John survived and that he has had the opportunity to have his own lovely family.

One way I can express my gratitude for the air ambulance service is by supporting Devon Air Ambulance, which is my local air ambulance charity. 

For the past 13 years, alongside my husband Peter, I have volunteered for Devon Air Ambulance. We collect the charity collection boxes in shops, garages, businesses and restaurants and we help elsewhere whenever we can. 

It’s important to me that I can help the service to be there to respond to time-critical situations like John’s well into the future, which is why I have added Devon Air Ambulance as a beneficiary in my will. I am pleased that my support will assist their amazing work after I am gone and their work will help to touch the lives of other families like mine.