LAST week, I was invited to visit Cornwall Air Ambulance base at Newquay by my colleague Cornwall councillor Steven Webb, an ambassador for the charity.

Now a wheelchair user, when just 18 years old, Steven didn’t realise that playing at a local swimming pool in Truro with his friends would change his life forever. In the summer of 1991, he climbed a wall and dived into the deep end of the pool. As he dived in, he hit the bottom, and broke his neck.

The air ambulance, which had been founded four years earlier, transported him to the specialist spinal care unit in Southampton. We learnt that the charity raises £8-million every year to cover its costs, with just under £2-million from regular donations, the rest being raised by their lottery, shops and other initiatives.

Now flying from 7am until 2am with two shifts, the highly trained paramedics on board can administer blood products, so it is more of a flying critical care unit, taking emergency first aid to the patient. Over 50 employees keep the helicopter in the air, but a huge army of volunteers work throughout Cornwall to raise funds, including £2.8-million for the latest new helicopter, now undergoing its operational trials.

When “locked in” during the Covid pandemic, I started to support the Big Issue by having a monthly subscription to their magazine, which supports people who are homeless. I would prefer to buy from a vendor, who buys each copy for £2 and sells it for £4, giving them a sense of purpose as they are earning. However I rarely visit the larger town centres where the vendors have their pitches, so continue to get it delivered by Royal Mail.

The articles are insightful, especially those from Lord John Bird, who founded the organisation, and has been rewarded for his work with a seat in the House of Lords. He is campaigning for better laws for tenants, doing away with no fault evictions. It is a problem as property owners evict tenants to market the property as holiday lets, or sell the properties to second home owners, especially in the coastal communities which I represent.

The other charity which I support is Cornwall Mind. I have suffered from poor mental health, as have friends and family. Since retiring from farming in 2018 I have raised over £4,000 for Mind. I am aware from my work as a Cornwall Councillor that poor mental health can lead to alcohol and drug abuse, relationship breakdown and financial problems, which can then lead to homelessness.

It is great that charities supplement the work that government can undertake to improve our health and wellbeing. The Reform Party want an insurance based model for the NHS, utilising private businesses, which would drastically increase demand on charities. This potentially stretches their resources to breaking point, while simultaneously widening the health gap for the most vulnerable in society. This would not lead to a fairer society, for which we, Liberal Democrats, campaign.