A NEWCASTLE Emlyn brother and sister have raised £120 for the Welsh Air Ambulance through an online raffle after hearing how the charity had suffered a huge drop in donations because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Amy Wilson, 14 and a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn, and nine-year-old Thomas, who attends Ysgol y Ddwylan, heard about the plight of the Air Ambulance which relies on public donations to keep flying and decided they had to do something to help.

Proud mum Tracey, a registered child minder, said: “They decided they wanted to hold a raffle but we could not do anything in town because of the lockdown restrictions so decided to do a virtual raffle. At first I was not even sure how we could do that.

“We had two prizes of an Easter egg and bottles of wine and people entered by paying me through my Paypal account.

“To decide who had won, we then ‘asked Alexa’ to pick two random numbers between one and 50 and that’s how we did it.”

And the family has more reason than most to support the Air Ambulance and appreciate what it does.

“The air Ambulance means a lot to our family as they saved my dad - Amy and Thomas’s grandad -Peter Lewis, the former mayor of Newcastle Emlyn, back in October 2016,” added Tracey.

“He had a heart attack on my birthday and without the Air Ambulance getting him to hospital so quickly, he would not be here today.

“It’s such a vital service, especially when you live in a rural area and it’s important people realise it relies on donations to keep it going and receives no government funding.”

Mark Stevens, South and Mid Wales fund-raising manager said: “On behalf of Wales Air Ambulance Charity we would like thank Amy and Thomas for their fantastic fund-raising efforts during this difficult time.

“As a charity, we rely on the public’s incredible generosity to fund our four helicopters across Wales and Amy and Thomas’ very creative and thoughtful contribution will help us to keep our helicopters in the air and provide pioneering critical and emergency medical care across Wales.”

There are several ways that the public can continue to support the Wales Air Ambulance.

These include online donations, signing up to the Charity’s Lifesaving Lottery or by coming up with their own innovative ways to fundraise at home. Further information can be found via www.walesairambulance.com.

Alternatively, you can help by donating £5 via a ‘text to donate’ number, to do this just text HELI to 70711.