Cambridge Edition December 2021 - Web

ADVERT I SEMENT FEATURE

SUPPORT EAAA THIS CHRISTMAS Our local life-savers need your help – here’s how you can make a real difference

ere at Cambridge Edition , we are pleased to have contributed towards helping East Anglian Air

Ambulance (EAAA) do its vital job, having raised just over £3,000 during our Charity of the Year partnership. As this draws to an end, the charity still needs all the help it can get from the local community. To date, EAAA has treated over 20,000 patients – and it needs support from the public to keep flying and keep saving lives. Like their emergency services colleagues, the EAAA teams will be working around the clock this Christmas to provide critical care pre-hospital for those who need it. EAAA offers life-saving critical care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and needs to raise £15m a year to deliver and develop the service. Between its two teams – one based in Cambridge, one in Norwich – EAAA is tasked to almost 3,000 accidents and medical emergencies each year. This Christmas, EAAA is launching the Gift of Life campaign to help its crews be there for someone in their darkest hour. At the heart of it is 51-year-old Mark Drury, who needed the advanced care of the air ambulance team last year, when he suffered a cardiac arrest in the middle of the night. Mark had no prior health concerns or warning signs, but at about 1.30am that night, his wife Melanie sensed him stirring unusually in his sleep. She turned on the bedside light to see Mark’s ears and lips turning blue. His heart had stopped,

WAYS TO GIVE EAAA THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS PRESENT • Order your EAAA Christmas cards by 10 December • Send a message for the crew to read on Christmas Day • Buy a virtual gift, such as a blizzard blanket, to help keep EAAA’s patients warm

• Light up your house in aid of EAAA • Donate to the Gift of Life campaign • Join the EAAA weekly lottery

so much to look forward to, and are incredibly grateful that we were able to get such fantastic care. We urge everyone to consider supporting this campaign, to give others the gift of life that I’ve had.” A donation of £42 to the Gift of Life campaign could help to buy a breathing mask used to treat Mark during his cardiac arrest, and contribute to EAAA saving more lives. Go to eaaa.org.uk/giftoflife

and he was in cardiac arrest. Melanie called 999 and pulled him off the bed – using strength she didn’t know she had – to start CPR on the floor. An East of England Ambulance Service crew arrived quickly, and were able to restart Mark’s heart with a shock from a defibrillator, but he became extremely agitated. The ambulance team requested support from EAAA, as Mark was in a difficult and combative state, needing enhanced care and safe transport to hospital, in order to prevent another cardiac arrest. Mark said: “It’s important for anyone going through this to know that life doesn’t have to stop. It might pause for a while, but you can carry on and have a new lease of life. We have

GRATEFUL Mark owes his life to the work of EAAA – and is encouraging the local community to support the organisation this Christmas

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