Air Ambulance NI recognise local funeral directors

The event was a recognition of their support for the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) via the facilitating of ‘donations in-lieu of flowers’ of a loved one’s passing, for Air Ambulance NI.

Funeral directors including DJM Robinson & Son, Ballymena, attended and heard about the impact of their support from Glenn O’Rorke Operational Lead of the HEMS.

Damien McAnespie, Air Ambulance NI Fundraising manager, said: “We are so humbled and appreciative of the many families and individuals that have chosen Air Ambulance NI over the past four years for donations in lieu of flowers in memory of their loved ones. Giving in memory is an important and poignant way of supporting the charity service. Our charity requires £2m in donations each year and every donation helps towards this and keeps the helicopter flying. Damien also acknowledged the additional work funeral directors have in this process: “As well as their normal day-to-day duties, the administration of donations in-lieu of flowers can be a time-consuming process from accepting donations both in cash and electronically, dealing with correspondence between donors, the charity and the bereaved family and then accounting and transferring monies. We at Air Ambulance NI really appreciate this and acknowledge the huge impact that Covid-19 has had on their roles too.”