Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance is launching an urgent fundraising appeal as the charity anticipates losing up to £3m and the capacity to fly at night.
It’s also announced that it’s already making cut backs including not flying at night through May.
It stresses the reason for the reduced service is not just due to funds, but also because staff are being directed elsewhere to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesman for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, said: “The initial impact of Coronavirus left us no other option than to cancel our fundraising activities and close our shops. We anticipate we may lose up to £3m in income as a result.
“We have already had to scale back night missions meaning our helicopter will not be making night missions at all as of May. This move is due to some of our crew being called back to support the NHS, while some are self-isolating, unable to travel or have become ill.
“We continue to carry out life-saving missions every day but, along with a reducing service, we are concerned about the impact of this significant income drop when we are able to resume our service.
“We need to be safeguarded against these effects so that we can continue our missions now and return to full capacity, while realising our ambition to be a full 24/7 service.”
CEO Karen Jobling said : “In order to safeguard the charity moving forward and ensure we can provide a Helicopter Emergency
Medical Service to our local communities, I’m reaching out to people in our communities who are able to make a donation so that we can continue to provide a life-saving service.
“We don’t know at the moment whether we are eligible for the funding government has announced for frontline charities, what the criteria is or the timeframe in which funds could be accessed. We of course will be following this closely but we are in a period of great uncertainty for the air ambulance, so we are relying on donations more than ever to help keep us flying.
“We appreciate that this is a very difficult and challenging time and I hope people are keeping as safe and well as possible.”
To donate you can visit the website ambucopter.org.uk to donate or call 01522 548469. You can also text SAVELIVES to 70085 to donate £10.
A virtual fundraising page has also been set up. The Air Ambulance is urging you to #chooseyourchallenge to raise money for us.
