One of North Wales’ longest established housing providers has helped raise almost £6,500 for Wales Air Ambulance.
Staff at North Wales Housing nominated the lifesaving service as its Charity partner for 2024/2025 during their staff conference in March last year.
Emma Williams, Assistant Director of Finance and Chair of the company’s Charity panel said: “This is the second time we have fundraised for Wales Air Ambulance, since establishing our panel back in 2014.
“The second year, staff nominated the lifesaving service, we raised just over £6,000 in 2015, and we were delighted to do so once again as we mark our 11th anniversary of supporting local and national causes like this.”
North Wales Housing was established in 1968 and has just under 3,000 homes and is making a difference by providing homes in communities where people love to live. It is also trusted Supported Housing provider in the region for over 20 years, empowering individuals to achieve greater independence and well-being.
Emma said: “We cover a vast area, right across North Wales along the coast, with large clusters in Caernarfon, Bangor, Llandudno, Holyhead, and Colwyn Bay. We also have homes in Abersoch, all the way over to Wrexham.”
Emma is hugely proud to work with such an ‘incredibly generous team’, who want to help raise funds for local Charities each year. To date they have raised £50,252 benefiting a variety of local organisations and support groups across the North Wales region.
She says, ‘the employees are key to this’, bringing forward nominations each year, before a final vote takes place at their staff conference each March.
Emma said: “It’s then the job of our Charity panel to pull together various activities throughout the year, so that everyone can get involved.
“With Wales Air Ambulance, we knew it organised quite a few high-profile events, so we wanted to support those.
“But we also did things like sponsored walks, bonkers bingo, raffles, and a couple of sweep stakes. We did Fantasy Football League and every Christmas we hold wreath making and chocolate bouquet workshops where staff paid to do the class, with all the money going to the Charity.
“We also celebrated Chinese New Year, one of our charity panel members cooks a wonderful curry for us, which everyone loves.”
She added: “Our very own 50:50 initiative is extremely popular with staff and easy to support too. People take a pound from their pay, with 50p going to the winner and 50p going to the Charity. That raises around £2,000 a year for us.”
North Wales Housing has just over two hundred employees, and Emma says when they get together, they like to do something special to help the Charity of choice.
She said: “We don’t see each other that often as a large group, so our staff conference is a large gathering.
“We always do a raffle, with brilliant prizes which are often donated by our generous suppliers. Everyone always digs deep, and we raised around £1,500 this year from that.”
North Wales Housing has raised £6,445 for Wales Air Ambulance which relies on public donations to raise the £11.2 million require every year to keep the helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the road.
The consultant-led service takes 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 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.
The North Wales Housing team have visited one of our bases. Emma says they had a ‘brilliant’ day meeting the clinicians and pilot.
She added: “It was fantastic to sit inside the helicopter, I felt so privileged to have that opportunity.
“The team gave us such a warm welcome and were showing us all the kit and where they would put the patient.
“As someone who has grown up in this area, in the Valleys of North Wales, it is just incredible that we can have a helicopter come to us with all the skills of an emergency department.
“It’s wonderful that this service is giving the remotest villages the same opportunities as those living in urban areas, living near hospitals. It is much needed and a valuable cause.”
Emma has a very personal link with the Charity. Her dad needed the service back in 2003. Robin was putting up Christmas lights on the gable end of the family home when he fell. She says it was a ‘worrying time’.
She continued: “My mum was out at the time, but thankfully, the neighbour called 999, and the air ambulance came to his aid.
“He broke a few bones in his neck; he injured a couple of ribs and was quite bashed up. If he would have fallen just a foot to the left, it would have ended very differently.
“We are forever grateful to the team that came that day, dad is here because of them. Thankfully, he made a good recovery and was able to return to work.”
As a result of Robin’s accident both he and his wife Shelley raise funds for the service each December.
Emma said: “Mum and dad were quite well known for their Christmas light show and would have a donation box outside of their house.
“We realise as a family how important it is to keep supporting the Charity, it is our way of saying thank you.”
Elaine Orr, Fundraising Manager for North West Wales said: “This is the second time North Wales Housing’s team have nominated us as their Charity partner.
“We are so grateful for the support we have received over the years, 2025, has been particularly poignant with the opportunity for us to team up once again.
“The staff helped raise £6,445 – that’s the equivalent to the cost of two lifesaving missions and counselling sessions with our aftercare patient liaison nurses. A truly incredible legacy.
“Partnerships like this ensure we are able to continue to help patients like Emma’s dad, wherever and whenever they need us.”
