Weather keeps crew on its toes

January continues to place demands on both SCAA’s frontline emergency response helicopter air ambulance and its road-based Rapid Response Vehicle.

In the past week, the charity team has been called to seven emergencies both close to the Perth Airport base and further afield.

The helicopter air ambulance made use of the golf course at Killin to land so that paramedics could quickly attend a woman injured in a fall.

The woman, who suffered a fractured ankle in the fall, was flown to Ninewells Hospital at Dundee.

And a frosty field near Kinloch Rannoch provided the perfect landing pad when SCAA was called to a medical emergency at a remote rural property.

The ill woman was flown to Ninewells for urgent hospital treatment.

A serious road traffic collision on the A935 near Brechin - involving a van and a tractor and trailer - saw SCAA fly to the scene and land in a roadside field.

SCAA paramedics worked alongside colleagues from the Scottish Ambulance Service Special Operations Team, SAS road ambulance crew, Scottish Fire and Rescue and Police Scotland to tend the injured.

A woman was taken the short journey by road ambulance to hospital.

SCAA’s Rapid Response Vehicle was in action at a medical emergency in Perth and a paramedic from the vehicle escorted the patient in the land ambulance to hospital.

And the road vehicle was also used to transport SCAA paramedics to a cardiac emergency in the city.

* * * Perthshire companies, groups and individuals continue to support the need for funding to keep the country’s only charity-funded air ambulance flying.

Donations from local supporters handed in to SCAA over the past week include £174.66 raised at a Christmas service collection at Fortingall and Glenlyon Church.

Estate services provider Savills’ Perth office donated £1,000 as part of the company’s ongoing corporate support.

Thanks also to the BP service station on Dunkeld Road near Inveralmond in Perth.

They have agreed to start supporting SCAA by placing a collection can on the premises and giving their carrier bag 5p levies to the charity.

And a collection at a festive congregation in St. John’s Kirk in Perth raised £305.75 for SCAA.

A Dunkeld woman treated and flown to hospital by SCAA following a serious trauma several years ago has been fundraising with a friend by taking a collection can to two local craft fairs in the run-up to Christmas.

She collected £307.45 from generous members of the public.

Other collecting cans being emptied this week include ones placed at: Broxden Service Station £136.11; Tesco Edinburgh Road service station, Perth £106.64; Alyth Co-op £42.74 and Tower Bakery, Bridge of Earn £42.

* * * If you are thinking about setting yourself a new challenge for the new year, why not consider a sponsored effort for SCAA.

Check out the charity’s website to see the range of activities that have been attracting funloving supporters from all over the country.

Perthshire people looking for an adrenaline rush can sign up for walks, cycles, runs, swims, abseils or skydives - all detailed at www.scaa.org.uk