Lives: The First Responder Charity...

LIVES (Lincolnshire’s Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service) provides a rapid Emergency Response for medical emergencies

LIVING in a rural county has its difficulties. Between the stunning Lincolnshire villages, market towns, and coastline are vast tracts of countryside; great for the view but difficult for accessibility – especially for those seeking emergency care. It can often take some time to reach someone experiencing a medical emergency, and in such circumstances, every second counts.

That’s where LIVES comes in. The service organises a network of life-saving Emergency Responders who are based within local communities, meaning that they can attend the scene of a 999 medical emergency rapidly, arriving on scene before the ambulance 84% of the time.

There are around 500 LIVES Emergency Responders based across the county; from a Community First Responder attending a cardiac arrest to a Critical Care Doctor performing life-saving surgery on the roadside; LIVES volunteer Emergency Responders have attended over 11,000 incidents over the past year, giving over 67,000 hours of their time to saving lives in our local communities.

What Can Your Donation Provide?

Every penny – or pound – you can spare LIVES will make a difference. Just £10 pays for a one litre oxygen bottle to help a patient with breathing difficulties.

The service not only provides local Emergency Responders on your doorstep, LIVES also has a dedicated Critical Care Car (callsign Medic 50) crewed by volunteer Critical Care Doctors and Paramedics who have advanced skills, giving them the ability to offer medical attention that others cannot such as sedation, surgical procedures and advanced pain relief – all at the scene of an incident. From February 2023, Medic 50 will also carry blood on the vehicle, an opportunity to give blood transfusions to patients giving an even better quality of care to those in the most critical need. The charity promotes the sharing of its lifesaving skills like CPR and offers a wide range courses like First Aid at Work.

LIVES recruits, trains and equip their Emergency Responders to give the very best care to Lincolnshire’s patients on their very worst day. It’s a costly service that requires £1.4million of charitable funding each year. The charity depends on fundraising and donations to continue its incredible work. n

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust Charity...

EACH YEAR United Lincolnshire Hospitals

NHS Trust roughly serves a population of over 750,000 people, on an average year our hospitals will treat in excess of 140,000 accident and emergency patients, over 600,000 outpatients, over 140,000 inpatients and its midwives deliver over 5,000 babies.

The Trust has its own charity, set up in 1996 to support our hospitals and the 9,000 people who work in them, to fund newer equipment, health and wellbeing initiatives and items to support our staff, across Lincoln County Hospital, Grantham and District Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital Boston and County Hospital Louth.

Recent work has included the creation of a sensory room at Pilgrim Hospital, the funding of an MRI scanner in Louth and funding outdoor space for staff as well as funding Christmas meals for staff who worked over the festive season.

This year the Charity will also celebrate 75 years of the NHS with a black tie ball at Doubletree by Hilton on Saturday 13th May, with tickets now available at £55/head. n

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

LINCOLNSHIRE’S WILDLIFE TRUST was established in 1948 and this year is celebrating 75 years of caring for wildlife and wild places from the Humber to The Wash. It is one of the oldest of 46 similar Wildlife Trusts covering the UK which are affiliated to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Together, the Wildlife Trusts look after over 2,300 nature reserves, 99 of these are in Lincolnshire. They include some of Lincolnshire most-loved sites such as Gibraltar Point, Snipe Dales, Whisby Nature Park and Far Ings.

The Trust is a registered charity with 26,000 members. Funds are raised through membership, dona- tions, legacies and from grant-giving bodies such as The National Lottery. The money is spent on managing the nature reserves, providing opportunities for people to experience nature and on wider conservation initiatives like Dynamic Dunescapes, LoveLincsPlants and Nextdoor Nature which empowers communities to take action for nature in their local area. n

How Many Good Causes

There are about 166,000 charities in the UK, with a total annual turnover of just under £48bn. Charities in the UK spend over £40bn a year, and employ 827,000 people. Source: NCVO.

COSTING £1.6M EACH YEAR to maintain, Lincoln Cathedral has significant financial pressures, as well as ever-more pressing demands on its team for the protection and preservation of its fabric.

The building’s west front was recently the subject of a six-year conservation project, and now work is now taking place on a three year £1.5m project to conserve the building’s Chapter House. The work involves cleaning and conserving the stonework, carving replacement ashlars, replacing the carved embellishments and the parapet and cleaning and remediating the glazing and woodwork.

To help fund the project, you can support the appeal by sponsoring a stonemason from just £10, signing or carving your name on a stone or by adopting a piece of one of the Cathedral’s 140 stained glass windows from as little as £25. n

Heritage Lincolnshire

BASEDIN HECKINGTON, the charity Heritage Lincolnshire aims to enhance and protect Lincolnshire’s historic buildings, landscapes and its archaeology.

Created in 1988, and renamed Heritage Lincolnshire in 1991, the charity is the most active buildings preservation trust in the East Midlands and has become one of the UK’s leading regional heritage bodies.

Its work includes promoting learning and volunteer activities, community engagement, delivering conservation projects and undertaking archaeological fieldwork.

The organisation’s sites include Spilsby’s Bolingbroke Castle, Boston’s Hussey Tower, Tattershall College, Tupholme Abbey and Holbeach’s Underground Monitoring Post bunker as well as Kirton’s Old King’s Head, the former public house it renovated in 2021 which now serves as a café and community meeting space.

Donations from the public aren’t just a way of securing the conservation of Heritage Lincolnshire’s buildings, but also allow the charity to secure match funding from organisations like the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Nature – enabling Heritage Lincolnshire to continue to save threatened buildings. n

Find Out More: You can donate to Heritage Lincolnshire and view a range of Lincolnshirethemed products in the charity’s online hope at www.heritagelincolnshire.org.