Mike McGrath, Air Ambulances UK: From Street Fundraiser to Accidental CEO

And, uh, and s- you know, in fact, uh, we talked off air the other week about this a little bit.

I'm kind of fascinated by air ambulances as well, and I, you know, I think we'd been talking for a bit and I was thinking, I just can't believe that it does rely so heavily on generosity and fundraising when really in my mind it's part of the, almost part of the critical national infrastructure.

H- has that been a real eye-opener for you moving into th- this space as well?

Uh, yes, it has, but in lots of amazing ways.

So I think, um, th- you know, coming into the sector new, the air ambulance sector that is, um, it is so incredible in so many ways.

So the levels of emergency service and medical work and pushing the boundaries of what's possible outside of a hospital environment genuinely has been mind-blowing.

Um, also what has been incredible to witness is just how much the services are needed and how active they are across all communities of the UK.

So as I said earlier, every 11 minutes on average there's a mission, and I've been round to so many different services to see them and see the teams and see the different charities, and the diversity of missions, the regularity of them.

Um, genuinely, I can't recall going on a visit, uh, where there hasn't been either a mission just happened as I've arrived, or there's a mission happens at some stage while I'm there, or I'm about to leave and then the next minute they're off.

Um-

Alarms going off, lights flashing.

But it's-

Scramble, scramble

... oh, it's, it's really visceral, naturally.

Um, but then also, uh, it, just how needed it is, but also just how much the public identify with and support their local air ambulance charities, which is so incredible, um, because literally any of us could be a patient at any time.

You know, a couple of Saturdays ago, I was, you know, cliché I know, but taking the bins out.

Um, and London's Air Ambulance, um, Charity was landing in the little park just a couple of streets down.

Um, when I was walking through town the other day to a meeting, I could see that it was going along the main road that I was walking down, going back to base in Whitechapel.

Um, and it clearly is and is so needed, but so brilliantly supported.

Um, but like always, with quite a lot of elements of the charity sector, um, things were started by amazing people with an idea, seeing a niche that needed to be served, and the government infrastructure only pays or only goes for so much.

Mm.

So the NHS, different government departments across that space of emergency services, we're critical partners.

Um, b- but understandably so, um, there are things that the public don't realize until we've talked to them about it and shine a spotlight on the work.

So it's sort of that public support is so brilliant and so needed.

Mm.