Harrogate Convention Centre to support life-saving Yorkshire charity

6 December 2022 - Harrogate Convention Centre (HCC) will be supporting the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA), Harrogate’s mayoral charity of the year.

The Convention Centre will host Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s volunteers at selected public events including exhibitions and entertainment shows, who will collect donations and spread the word about the vital work of the YAA. QR codes will also be displayed at the venue to facilitate digital donations. Given their large footfall, these events stand as great fundraising opportunities for the life-saving charity.

The YAA is an independent charity providing a life-saving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across the whole of Yorkshire. The service is operational seven days a week, 365 days a year. Last year, the charity were tasked to over 1,700 incidents, and treated 1,200 patients who required their services.

The YAA currently operates two helicopters – one based at Nostell Air Support Unit, near Wakefield and the other at RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk, which cost £19,000 per day to operate and maintain.

The YAA was nominated by the Mayor of Harrogate Borough, Councillor Victoria Oldham, to be her ‘Charity of the Year’ for the mayoral year 2022-2023.

Lin Stead, Regional Fundraising Manager for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to HCC for supporting us and the Mayor of Harrogate, by allowing us these fantastic opportunities to fundraise and spread the word about the vital work of the YAA. Our staff and volunteers are really looking forward to attending many of the events and working with the HCC and Mayor’s team.”

Councillor Victoria Oldham, Harrogate Borough Mayor, said: “As the Mayor of the borough of Harrogate and a Councillor representing a rural ward I am especially pleased to have the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as my chosen charity and I am very grateful to Paula Lorimer and her team at the Harrogate Convention Centre for facilitating fundraising for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as my chosen charity.”

Paula Lorimer, Director, Harrogate Convention Centre, said: “As a stakeholder of the community we believe medical services are vital to the safety and wellbeing of the Harrogate community. We were honoured to support the NHS when our venue was redeployed as a Nightingale hospital during Covid; it is with great pleasure that we support the Mayor and welcome the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to our venue to support their fundraising efforts as our community strive to recover from the pandemic. I also thank our clients for accommodating the charity at their events to support life-saving rapid response emergency service for residents of Yorkshire.”