St Peter’s Probus

On Tuesday, May 10, St Peter’s Probus held its monthly meeting at the Royal Ivy Bush Hotel, Carmarthen.

The chairman, Alan, welcomed members and asked them to stand in remembrance of John Hadlow, a former member of the club who had recently passed away.

Alan then accepted the reports from those committee members responsible for club management.

Treasurer Martin reported that the club accounts were healthy, and that Arwyn Howells had volunteered to act as club auditor. Arwyn was unanimously voted into the job.

Membership secretary: the chairman announced that Eric, who was unable to be at the meeting, had kindly taken on the job and would be the contact point for enquiries and applicants. The new club information leaflet designed by Tom would show a dedicated club email address with the emails initially going to Eric.

Arthur in his role as welfare officer said that he had spoken to those members who were not in the best of health and he let members at the meeting know how their fellow members were progressing.

Roger, trip organiser, reported on the May holiday to The Hatherly Manor Hotel, Cheltenham, that most of the day trips had been arranged but a final decision on some would have to be made when everyone was on the coach. Also, that Eric would be sending reminders of the pick-up points and times to everyone. Roger was warmly thanked by members for the work he had done.

Speakers’ secretary Guy reported that he had speakers arranged up to the November meeting and some of the talks were on subjects of wide interest. Guy asked if members were in favour of inviting wives and other interested clubs to those talks, as was done when the chief constable spoke to the club. After a brief discussion members gave a tentative vote in favour.

Before the chairman closed the business meeting at 10.40, he announced that the club would hold its yearly lunch at the Ivy Bush Hotel on January 10, 2023, to ease the pre-christmas excesses.

St Peter’s Probus reconvened at 11.00 hours and the chairman introduced the speaker, Mr James Cordell, the south west regional fundraiser for Wales Air Ambulance.

James gave an impressive talk about the history and work of the Wales Air Ambulance that is a totally public-funded operation that costs about £8 million a year to support.

The Air Ambulance was first set up in 2001, operating in daytime hours with one helicopter. The criteria for action were, and still are, to save life or limbs that are at immediate risk and where prompt medical aid is essential. At the beginning the idea was to get the patient to the nearest hospital as soon as possible. However, over the years it was found that primary care at the scene of the incident had immense benefits and then get the patient to the hospital best equipped to deal with the injury.

Helicopter teams have been expanded to include, besides the pilot, a critical care practitioner (paramedic), and a specialist doctor. The doctors are seconded from hospitals across Wales for several months at a time, with their primary salary still being paid by their hospital. The pilots are often retired members of the armed forces and at least one of the crew has had training sufficient to act as co-pilot if needed. There are now four helicopters in use that are leased from the manufacturer as each needs servicing “down time” that would be an interruption if replacements were not provided.

The helicopters operate from four bases across Wales and can be at an incident scene anywhere in the country within 20 minutes. They only need an area as big as a tennis court to land on and are very stable on the ground, so level ground is not essential.

The crew are both male and female and in 2019 by chance the first all-female crew took to the air.

One of the four helicopters has a specialist role for transporting children quickly when urgent medical treatment can only be provided by another hospital such as when an organ donation becomes available and time is of the essence.

James’s talk encompassed much more than this report can convey but the one thing to be remembered is that without donations from the public this essential service could not exist.

James was given enthusiastic applause and the treasurer presented him with a cheque donation of behalf of St Peter’s Probus. James then joined members for an enjoyable lunch at the hotel.

Many St Peter’s Probus members already make personal donations and anyone also wishing to contribute should go the Wales Air Ambulance’s web page for details, it is as easy as that.