Staff at NatWest Cymru’s Brecon branch have whipped up a feast of tasty treats to sell in aid of Wales Air Ambulance to kick off the town’s very famous Jazz Festival Week.
It’s after the bank’s Wales team nominated the lifesaving service as its Charity of the Year.
Branch Manager Alison Phillips rallied her team to put on ‘a big spread’ to mark the prestigious music event and encourage visitors to pop in for refreshments whilst raising funds.
She said: “Every year, people travel from all over to be in town for the Brecon Jazz Festival and we wanted to make sure we did something special to mark the occasion.
“We decided to do a cake sale, which turned into a cake festival, it was hard to choose which one to eat.”
Alison was a little worried the night before. She said: “We haven’t done a cake sale since before Covid.
“I was thinking ‘are we going to have enough people to buy them?’ because I baked a few and the staff did. There is nothing worse than making too many and nobody turns up.
“Then the flip side to that, was that lots of people could show up to support and there would not enough cakes.”
Thankfully ‘everything worked out perfectly’. Alison said: “There was a real buzz on the Friday, our entire branch, didn’t look like a bank, it literally looked like the tent at the Royal Welsh Show.
“We had so many fantastic treats. Even if someone could not eat because they were gluten-free or diabetic, they would walk in to donate.”
She added: “In truth none of us knows when we might need the air ambulance, so the feelgood factor of buying a cake or donating was electric.
“Everyone was just so pleased to know that money was going towards helping save lives, it just felt amazing.”
Wales Air Ambulance is consultant-led, taking hospital-standard treatments to the patient and, if required, transferring them directly to the most appropriate hospital for their illness or injury.
It is delivered via a unique third sector and public sector partnership. The Wales Air Ambulance Charity relies on public donations to raise the £11.2 million required every year to keep the helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the road.
The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) supplies highly skilled NHS consultants and critical care practitioners who work on board the Charity’s vehicles.
This advanced critical care includes the ability to administer anaesthesia, deliver blood transfusions and conduct minor operations, all at the scene of an incident.
As a pan-Wales service, its dedicated crews, regardless of where they are based, will travel the length and breadth of the country to deliver emergency critical care.
Alison lives near the Brecon Beacons and says she ‘regularly’ sees the helicopter flying overhead.
She said: “It is amazing that Wales Air Ambulance has this incredible ability to take the emergency room to those who are critically ill or injured.
“My house looks on to Pen-y-Fan and the farm where I was born is the same, and we see the helicopter out more often that we would wish to.
“Also, a member of our team, who lives in Merthyr told me that when she was on holiday, she saw it most days.”
The grandmother of four who has worked for NatWest Cymru for 45 years is hugely proud of her team for being such a ‘charitable bunch’.
She said: “We have always fundraised for local charities and organisations that need help.
“But when we found out that NatWest Cymru staff had voted for Wales Air Ambulance to be
its Charity partner, we decided to focus on helping the cause.”
The team have an honesty bookstore at its Brecon branch, where customers can pop in and pick up something to read and put a donation in the box.
She said: “We are quite lucky here; a lot of customers really support that and bring in good paperback books and often pick up a different one for themselves and give a 50p donation.
“We raise quite a lot of money quarterly; it’s about between fifty and eighty pounds every three months.”
She admits the team ‘love pitching in to help causes’ which make such a difference locally and were ‘delighted’, when they were told the final total from their cake sale.
Alison said: “Thanks to our incredible supporters we managed to raise £518.00, which was
the ‘real icing on the cake.’
“It was wonderful to get to work alongside Wales Air Ambulance’s Regional Fundraising
Manager Kate Thomas, and volunteers Tina and Anne, who were all brilliant.
“I have to say Tina, went out onto the street and was herding people in, they really responded, and we sold out within a few hours.”
The staff are now ‘buoyed up’ and are planning a physical challenge as well as a tombola and raffles.
Alison said: “The aim is to get an exercise bike in store and set a big distance for us to cover in a certain amount of time. We are yet to decide our target, but we are so ready for this.
“This is giving everyone a good feeling. We cannot wait to see how much we can raise.”
NatWest Cymru has 600,000 customers across Wales and a dedicated Welsh-speaking call centre in Menai. Events are being held across all its branches in aid of Wales Air Ambulance throughout 2025.
Kate Thomas, Regional Fundraising Manager for Powys said: “What an incredible way to welcome in the Brecon Jazz Festival!
“It was an honour to be part of the proceedings and join in with the celebrations. I know both Tina and Anne were amazed at the amount raised in such a short time.
“We are always happy to support a cake-loving town, and so grateful that every pound raised will go towards helping patients across Wales, wherever and whenever they need us.
“Events like this really do make a difference and help save lives.”
