GWAAC scoops two wins at national air ambulance awards

Published by Toby Allen at December 2, 2024

Ethan, Carlota and Dr Emma of GWAAC (front left) pose on stage with other award winners

Air Ambulances UK hosted its 2024 Awards of Excellence on Thursday 28 November and Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) is proud to announce we brought home awards in two categories: Young Person of the Year and Breaking Barriers.

The annual awards celebrate and recognise the dedicated professionals who tirelessly contribute their specialist lifesaving skills and unwavering commitment to the air ambulance community, including those who work hard to support it. The panel of judges deliberated long and hard over some very difficult decisions due to the outstanding quality of the nominations.

Young Person of the Year

In October 2023, we appointed Ethan's dad, Tim Ross-Smith, as our Operations Officer. We didn't realise at the time that Ethan came as part of a package deal with his dad; at just 15-years-old Ethan has thrown himself into supporting his local air ambulance charity in anyway he can.

Ethan won the award for making a significant contribution to GWAAC in the past 12 months to July 2024. Stand-out activities include abseiling from the roof of Ashton Gate Stadium to raise vital funds for our service and role-playing as a casualty for a photoshoot to help raise awareness of our work.

Ethan has also volunteered at large events on non-school days including Bristol Volksfest, South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust’s (SWASfT) open day at Staverton, and the Weston-super-Mare Emergency Services Day. Not only has Ethan taken on the responsibility for showing people around our critical care cars at these events, but he has also helped sell raffle tickets and merchandise and he has even assisted other volunteers who have been teaching CPR and defibrillation to event attendees.

When asked why he likes to help GWAAC, he said: “It just makes me feel happy to get the information out there and show people what we do and why we do it. We do it for them.” Ethan wants to encourage other young volunteers too. He says, “It’s a load of fun, you get to meet lots of new people, make friends and it’s a great experience!”

Dad and Operations Officer at GWAAC, Tim Ross-Smith, said: “My wife Liz and I are hugely proud of the young man Ethan has become and the efforts that he has put into volunteering for GWAAC. His enthusiasm is infectious and his knowledge is incredible! His help and support have been invaluable in a year when GWAAC has surpassed its record year for call-outs.”

Breaking Barriers

We were also delighted to win the Breaking Barriers Award for demonstrating exceptional, practical commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion thanks to our ongoing efforts to make defibrillators available to those who need them the most in our region.

Through our Great Western Hearts programme, we have developed and implemented a Defibrillator Mapping Tool that targets areas in our region with the greatest need for a lifesaving device and training on how to use it. These include areas affected by marginalisation, such as ethnicities and socio-economic status, leading to higher health inequalities.

The mapping tool is helping GWAAC improve health outcomes and the chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for everyone in the region.

Carlota Appleby, GWAAC’s Public Education Coordinator says, “I feel very proud of the team effort that has gone into this project. GWAAC has now installed 130 public access defibrillators to date, and a significant percentage have been in areas of socio-economic deprivation. Because of this, we have also been able to teach lifesaving CPR and defibrillation skills to the schools and communities in these areas which means more people will have the confidence to help someone who is suffering a cardiac arrest.”

Our work to install defibrillators and teach CPR where it is needed is only possible with your ongoing support. Help us save lives and keep families together this winter.

Ethan Ross-Smith (Young Person of the Year) poses with Carlota Appelby and Dr Emma Moore, representing our Great Western Hearts Team (Breaking Barriers Award winnner)