Sky's the limit for ambitious air ambulance chief

Jan 3 2010 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

WHEN it comes to ambition, the sky's the limit for Air Ambulance boss Grahame Pickering.

In just eight years, he has seen the North’s air ambulance grow from a tiny affair – with just one helicopter – to a multi-million pound operation.

Today, the service boasts three aircraft and a fleet of emergency response cars.

Today the paramedic-turned charity chief speaks of his refusal to rest until the future of the Great North Air Ambulance is secured.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done here,” Grahame said. “We run our own trading company, which is a fantastic operation and helps greatly with our costs. But the biggest battle for us is survival.

“We want to make what we do go further by buying our own helicopter.”

Grahame, now 56, believes his determination to achieve was forged in the mines of County Durham where he heaved coal from the earth for four years, from the age of 15.

Many years later, after a career in sales and advertising came to an abrupt halt, he applied to become a paramedic.

From the age of 16, Grahame had been an avid glider, graduating to becoming a fully-licensed pilot.

After qualifying as a full paramedic, his sights were quickly set on a seat in the Air Ambulance.

“It was great,” he said. “The idea of combining flying with a job I love was fantastic.”

When cost-cutting put the helicopter in danger, the head of the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), as it had become, believed the air ambulance’s only chance of survival was to separate and set up as a charity.

The search for a leader to head the break-away was on.

“I wasn’t interested at first,” Grahame admits. “But no one came forward. I didn’t want to see the service disappear, so I just said, ‘right, I’ll do it’.

“I remember my wife’s face when I told her. But she stood by me and supported me and I couldn’t have done any of this without her.

“I started in the back room of our house. Just me, thousands of collecting tins and a mobile phone.

“I convinced my friend, Ken Hibbitt, to set up the Air Ambulance lottery. Once we had that, things really started moving.”

A second helicopter was added in 2002. “That was a great moment,” Grahame recalls. “The following year we added doctors to the service.”

A third helicopter has been added since and the operation now represents a “gold standard” in medical care.

When Grahame took over, the charity turned over £50,000 a year. Last year, more than £5.5m was needed to keep it running.

“I love my job and what we do,” he said. “I have an incredibly loyal staff. We’re about the public. What we do is for them. But we wouldn’t exist without them, we need them to keep flying and to help us raise this extra money to buy our own helicopter.

“I’ll die still in this job, or see the charity’s future secured. Either way there’s still a job to do.”

Grahame would like to thank Simon Featherstone, the head of the NEAS, for his support through the years.

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