An air ambulance can be the difference between living and dying for a casualty in a critical condition, more so now than ever in remoter regions of Wales as rural hospital infrastructure and healthcare experience death by a thousand cuts.

The Wales Air Ambulance has twice landed on our farm – once when a neighbour had suspected spinal injuries after falling from height and more recently when a cyclist suffered a cardiac arrest close to the farmyard.

There is nothing quite as dramatic as seeing a helicopter in the signature red and green livery of the Wales Air Ambulance circling overhead and clocking that it is preparing to land.

It takes the feeling triggered by the wailing siren and flashing blue lights of a road ambulance to a different level because it quite often suggests a life and death situation is unfolding.

September marks Air Ambulance Week, an annual campaign that shines a spotlight on the vital work of air ambulance charities across the UK.

A few weeks earlier, the Health and Safety Executive revealed its latest set of data on farm accidents which showed that 27 people lost their lives on farms in Wales, England and Scotland in 2023/24, including two children.

There were many near misses too.

An air ambulance will have been called to many of those accidents and that rapid response will almost certainly have resulted in fewer of those ending in a fatality.

There is good reason why the Wales Air Ambulance is a favourite charity for many people living and working in agriculture.

When a casualty with life-threatening injuries is on a remote hillside or isolated farm miles from anywhere, let alone a hospital or ambulance station, and where accessibility is often an issue, a medical team arriving by air can provide emergency on-the-spot care and get that patient to hospital in a fraction of the time that journey would take by road.

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Many farmers will know someone who owe their life to an air ambulance crew because a big proportion of callouts are to rural locations.

Simply put, air medical providers save lives.