19 December 2008

Firefighters will be asking shoppers in High Wycombe tomorrow (Saturday 20 December) to help them raise money for charity.

Crews from High Wycombe Fire Station’s four watches will be out with their collection buckets in the Eden Shopping Centre from 11am to 4pm.

They are raising money for The Fire Fighters Charity, the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance and the Stoke Mandeville Hospital Burns Unit.

Watch Manager Eamonn Eddowes, from White Watch at High Wycombe Fire Station, said: “Local shoppers have responded magnificently before. We are collecting for three really good causes and we hope the public will be able to spare us some of their change while they are out shopping.”

The Fire Fighters Charity is a national charity which provides assistance to serving and retired fire and rescue service staff, their families and dependants.

The Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance carries life-saving equipment and transports patients to one of several hospitals in the area with landing facilities, or to a specialist hospital if required. It is crewed by a pilot and two paramedics. The paramedics are provided by the NHS, but all other costs have to be funded by a charitable trust.

The regional burns and plastics unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital provides specialist services to patients from Buckinghamshire, and as far away as Reading and Northampton