The Countess of Wessex visits Thames Valley Air Ambulance

The Countess of Wessex visited Thames Valley Air Ambulance (TVAA) at White Waltham Airfield, Maidenhead, to help launch their 21st anniversary celebrations ahead of National Air Ambulance Week (7th to 13th September). Her Royal Highness was appointed as Patron in January 2019 in reflection of her long-standing involvement with the charity which she has been pleased to support for many years.

The Countess was given a tour of the TVAA helicopter and shown some of the advanced medical equipment on-board before meeting the Air Ambulance crew and former patients who shared their life-changing experiences of the care they received. The charity is dedicating the anniversary of 21 years of service to its former patients and families, with its ‘Patients at Heart’ campaign launching this month.

White Waltham Airfield was the charity's first operating base and it was from there that the air ambulance service was dispatched to attend to The Countess of Wessex, when Her Royal Highness experienced the vital care of the emergency service in 2001. 

Thames Valley Air Ambulance is a life-saving charity that delivers advanced medical care within Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The charity delivers critical care to people in a medical emergency day and night, 365 days a year. Its highly trained teams of paramedics, doctors and pilots work together to bring the expertise, equipment and treatment of the hospital to patients in need.

In April, The Countess joined one of TVAA’s weekly crew video calls to hear how the charity’s paramedics and doctors were responding to the pandemic during lockdown. Her Royal Highness spoke to the crew about their redeployment in support of the NHS frontline effort; treating the most severely ill COVID-19 patients in hospitals within the region whilst continuing to provide a pre-hospital critical care service.