UK aeromedical charity Cornwall Air Ambulance was tasked to 1,064 missions during 2024. New figures released by the charity show 445 of the incidents were trauma-related, 327 were to help people who had suffered medical emergencies and 274 were in response to cardiac arrests. The crew also carried out 18 inter-hospital transfers.

Five-year-old Jai Bosustow was among those airlifted patients, after being involved in a road traffic collision in Porthleven in August. Jai suffered a head injury and broken arm after accidentally being knocked off his scooter. He was treated at the scene by the Cornwall Air Ambulance crew before being airlifted to hospital for onward care and has since made a good recovery.

Mum Kizzy says: “I will be forever grateful, because when you're in that scary situation all you want is someone who knows what they're doing and can help. I'll be forever grateful for the charity; until you need it you don't realise what an amazing thing it is to have.”

The month with the highest number of taskings was May, which saw 117 emergency calls come in. Throughout the year, the critical care team also delivered 19 blood transfusions to patients at the scene of an incident.

Chief executive Tim Bunting states: “2024 was another busy year for your charity, both in terms of mission numbers and the Heli2 Appeal. I want to thank every single person who has supported the appeal so far, we are getting incredibly close to reaching that GBP 2.85million target to bring a second lifesaving helicopter to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. But we cannot do it without you, and we need your help with the final push. Together we can boost the resilience, capability and availability of our service, meaning we'll be able to attend more missions by air and ultimately save even more lives across the county.”

Cornwall Air Ambulance launched its Heli2 Appeal with the aim of purchasing a second Leonardo AW169 helicopter in November 2023.