It’s my birthday on Monday 4th May, given we are all in COVID lockdown, instead of buying me a present or a card, offering to send me some alcohol or to have a virtual drink with me, I would like to ask you to please donate to St John Ambulance instead.

As many of you know, St John is a cause close to my heart and, in Northern Ireland, my family connection with it goes all the way back to WW1. As we now find ourselves in another crisis, I wanted to focus on home. 

£250 is the cost to help maintain one of their ambulances. So, I want to try and raise £750, which means we can keep three ambulances going! For every £100 raised, I will also personally contribute £30. Up to a total of £250.

St John is playing a vital role in supporting the NHS, but this comes at a cost. In NI they are currently losing c.£100k per month due to the loss of public event cover and commercial first aid courses. Their complete fleet of c.60 ambulances and their volunteers are fully deployed (wearing PPE) on patient transfers and emergency calls in support of the 5 NI NHS health trusts and NI Ambulance Service (NIAS). They have 1,860 volunteers (not paid staff!), 450 of whom are trained as ambulance technicians. Let’s help allow these selfless volunteers to continue to save lives. 

Thank you!

St John Ambulance is the nation's leading first aid charity! Every year through St John Ambulance (NI), thousands of people learn how to save a life through our training programmes, including many young people who are members of our youth organisations. We are probably best known for our presence at sporting and other public events. Our volunteers receive expert training and many doctors, nurses and paramedics volunteer for us. St John Ambulance (NI) has around 1000 adult volunteers and over 60 ambulances that need your financial help.