Wiltshire Air Ambulance paramedic, Bruce Jarvis, paid a flying visit to NatWest’s Chippenham branch today to collect £3000, after the charity was announced as the winner of a NatWest Community Fund award

In August NatWest launched a new fund, as part of its customer charter, to support local charities and projects, and invited customers and local people to decide who would benefit from this new community initiative. 380 individual funds of £5,000 were created nationwide, with £3,000 set to be awarded to the most popular good cause and £1,000 to the two runners up.

After weeks of voting a panel, made up of local bank officials, customers and community figures, carefully examined the nomination papers and chose Children’s Hospice South West, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, and Wessex 4 x 4 Rescue, as the three charities to benefit from North Wiltshire’s fund. The local community have since voted on which of the three charities would receive the £3,000 top donation and which two would each receive £1,000 – and Wiltshire Air Ambulance came out on top.

Sharon Jelfs, NatWest’s Senior Bank Manager for North Wiltshire, who handed over the winnings, said: “The Community Fund really captured the imagination of the local community and my colleagues and I would like to say a big thank you to all those that took the time to nominate and then vote. All three charities are winners but for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance team it is obviously an extra special time.”

Bruce Jarvis from Wiltshire Air Ambulance, said: “We are delighted to be voted the most popular good cause by the local community. The WAAA relies on charitable giving and corporate donations such as these to raise the £700,000.00 we need to fund the helicopter flying in Wiltshire enabling us to continue to save lives.”

Anyone wanting to find out more about Wiltshire Air Ambulance and how they can help them, can visit their website: www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk.