A9 landing aids injured driver

Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) landed on the carriageway of the A9 to attend a road traffic collision north of Calvine earlier this week.

SCAA paramedics worked with ambulance crews from Perth and Pitlochry at the scene, along with Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue.

The air ambulance flew one of the injured drivers in the two-vehicle collision to Ninewells Hospital at Dundee after he was cut free of the wreckage by firefighters, while a second casualty was taken by land ambulance to hospital.

SCAA worked with Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team and a Scottish Ambulance Service Special Operations Response Team (SORT) to rescue a man suffering severe chest pains from the Pentland Hills at the weekend.

SORT crew reached the patient using their all-terrain vehicle and SCAA was able to land close to the scene at the top of Carnethy Hill to airlift him rapidly to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The air ambulance was also back on the Scottish islands at the weekend.

SCAA was called to attend a patient with chest pains on Mull and fly him quickly to advanced hospital care at Oban. Another flight took the crew to Campbeltown where speed proved vital in getting a stroke patient to hospital. SCAA airlifted him to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital at Glasgow.

Visitors to Perth Show helped SCAA raise £1423.07 over the two days at their charity stand with a guaranteed prize tombola sold out within just hours each day. Others wanted to learn more about the work of the charity or thank them for the service they provide.

Struan Motors added a further £39.42 to SCAA’s takings by offering face painting sessions at their Perth Show stand in exchange for a donation to the airborne charity.

SCAA’s life-saving work throughout Scotland often prompts donations from family or friends of those airlifted.

This week an Aberfeldy man donated £200 to SCAA after his friend was recently helped by the crew.

A Kinross woman gifted £200 to SCAA from the proceeds of a recent family sale. And an Aberfeldy woman who was helped by the air ambulance following a car crash several years ago has donated £25. Another Aberfeldy woman donated £20 as she knows several people who have been helped by SCAA.

Holidaymakers are helping to boost SCAA’s funds by donating foreign currency as they pass through Edinburgh Airport. Cash collected in this way over the past three months has converted to £1,281.56 for SCAA.

And the latest bucket collection by SCAA volunteers at Edinburgh Airport raised £633.76.

Thanks also to two Blairgowrie sisters who continue their support of the charity with a £50 donation from their latest fundraising venture and a further £60 in response to SCAA’s Give Us Five Campaign being held throughout the charity’s fifth anniversary year.

A doctor in Highland Perthshire has also given £50 online in support of the Give Us Five appeal in recognition of “a very important service”.

The stalwart fundraisers at Pitlochry Station Bookshop have now raised over £250,000 for their chosen charities. A £450 donation to SCAA this week brings their total support for the air ambulance to £29,330.

Thanks to a Scone woman who donated £10 after reading SCAA’s summer newsletter.