St John Ambulance is the nation's leading first aid charity, who not only teach lifesaving skills but also provide medical cover at events throughout the country. Here at the Durham University, we have our very own university St John Ambulance unit - you might have seen us in the past at College Days or Balls, looking after that mate who got a bit carried away at the bar or looking after that person who had fallen down the stairs! We’re a relatively small unit but we’re also a proud one, as one of more than 50 student units across the country.

To ease the strain on the NHS in the fight against COVID-19, St John Ambulance are working with regional ambulance services, local emergency departments and the Nightingale hospitals across the country. Students like us are working to ease the strain by assisting in clinical roles in local hospital trusts and crewing ambulances, with others working behind the scenes to make sure our essential supplies get to where they are needed most. Luckily up in the North East, we haven’t been too busy, but elsewhere that is a different situation and as the situation changes weekly our own little university unit may be called into action.

We're all volunteers and don't expect or require any form of payment, we just want to do our bit with the skills we have. Unfortunately, with events up and down the country being cancelled, St John Ambulance are without a large source of their income at a time when NHS and government support may already be strained. This income would usually be spent on medical resources, medications, PPE and ambulance maintenance which would in turn support the local City of Durham unit with which we have close links to and whom are already in action.

Therefore, we are hoping to support our sister student units across the country as well as our local City unit, so that we can continue to assist the NHS in one of our biggest deployments in recent history.

We all want to return to Durham as soon as possible, please help us help you to make that happen that tiny bit sooner rather than later.