Helipad Summer 2020

Page 26

26

helipad www.daat.org At the start in La Gomera, Canary Islands

Oar-Inspiring... hile most of us hunker down in the winter months and prepare for cosy nights in by the fire, for four intrepid young ladies from ingsbridge, there was nothing cosy or comfortable about December and anuary .

R

egular readers of Helipad may recall the story from our winter 2018 issue of these four remarkable young women. Louise Read, Helen Symons, Chloe Harvey and Emily Read, who, as the Astro to Atlantic team, were undertaking the Talisker Whisky Challenge of rowing from La Gomera in the Canary Isles to Antigua, in aid of Devon Air Ambulance. Their success and achievement were awe-inspiring and, after continued fundraising throughout the remainder of , they finally presented the massive sum of , . ntrigued to find out more about their challenge, DAA’s Debbie regory caught up with one of the team, elen ymons. elen e plained that, far from the perception of it being a mental and physical test of endurance, she described it as the best-ever -day sleepover with her very best friends . The team sang, laughed, told very silly okes, played games and shared stories. e mostly rowed in pairs, and it didn’t matter who was rowing with who, we all ust loved it. e were all in such a good place mentally. e mostly did -hour shifts, occasionally with a third rowing for longer for an e tra boost. t never mattered who we rowed alongside, we all ust loved it. oor ou suffered terrible seasickness in the early days but never missed a stroke. The funny thing was that we’d e pected ou to be the one to mother’ the rest of us, instead it was us mothering’ her and encouraging her to eat despite feeling rough. There were, inevitably, some frustrations along the way. ne was the realisation that despite all their training being around coping with rough seas, high waves and hurricane-force winds, none of them had thought they would hit a weather front that was coming from the completely opposite direction to that anticipated. For several days they were simply rowing A A T the wind and, conse uently, making far slower progress than they’d e pected. That was very demoralising and frustrating, said elen. There was much shouting at the time, but we were all shouting AT the wind. e would plead for it to turn so that we could row T it, not against it. ventually their pleas were heard ater, it was the s ually winds that helped the girls

The team proudly sporting their DAA t-shirts

and, other than the issues of donning and doffing wet weather gear, they loved the speed that these winds helped them achieve. Another frustration was when the boat’s autohelm started playing up. After much scratching of heads, the girls eventually took it to bits – when they discovered that the repair was actually uite simple – and a massive sense of relief was felt by the whole team. Food was a massive highlight of every day. Along with their


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Critical Care Cars œhile our helicopters were oÿ ine, our two new Critical Care Cars have made a vital contribution to maintaining our operations, enabling us to still get our highly skilled clinicians to the patients who needed them most - by road

6min
pages 16-17

The paramedic experience – in their own words Providing critical care during the pandemic has been particularly challenging for our paramedics, not only dealing with an ever-changing situation but also ensuring they can provide the same level of care and compassion in the confi nes of {{). Two DAA paramedics describe the experience

16min
pages 20-23

Astro Atlantic fundraisers – truly oar-inspiring! Read how four plucky young women from Kingsbridge took on one of the world’s most dangerous and gruelling challenges, and how their bravery and determination raised over £45,000 for Devon Air Ambulance

6min
pages 26-27

Changing business but not changing support Many local businesses had to think ‘outside the box’ to quickly diversify in order to survive during these unprecedented times, but never forgot how they could continue to support DAA

5min
pages 18-19

We’re open! kur shops were impacted signifi cantly by lockdown but have worked hard to reopen ‘Covid-Secure’, as well as introducing other exciting and innovative ways to showcase the wonderful items we have for sale

7min
pages 14-15

The new world of ‘virtual’ fundraising Adaptable, innovative and creative – how our amaDŽing Fundraising Team embraced the challenges of ‘virtual’ events

5min
pages 24-25

Innovation and collaboration With protecting our crew and patients of paramount importance, back in aarch we took the diþ cult decision to temporarily ground our helicopters - but our operations teams worked tirelessly with other organisations to get us back in the air as quickly as possible

5min
pages 12-13
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