Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) will celebrate their 11th birthday on Sunday, July 1.

Since the charity was founded in 2007, the air ambulance has attended more almost 8,000 incidents across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and the charity’s critical care team vehicle, which came into service last February, has responded to over 858 call outs.

Since beginning its operations the air ambulance has developed its services to become one of the leading practitioners and training centres of pre hospital emergency medicine in the country.

Air ambulance also provides training to senior doctors to be able to fly as part of the air ambulances critical care team, enabling the service to perform highly specialised procedures, normally only possible within the Emergency Department of a hospital at the scene.

Thanks to the generous donations of people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight the air ambulance now carries a range of specialised equipment, normally found only in an emergency department as well as blood and plasma.

Chief executive of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Alex Lochrane, said: “HIOWAA’s vision is to always provide exceptional critical care to the sick and injured in their hour of need, both in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight. We have come a long way in the past eleven years and we continue to strive to be the best at what we do. Sunday 1st July is a significant milestone for HIOWAA and as our service evolves in the future, the needs of our patients will always be kept at the heart of all we do.”