Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Just had a knock at the door from a fully uniformed ambulanceman seeking support for the London Air Ambulance. For those who don't know, Virgin has been a major sponsor of the service for quite a few years but has apparently decided to pull out and I find it hard to believe this is going to happen to such a worthy cause. I can't find any reference to this decision on the net and am assuming it's not public knowledge yet but would be grateful if anyone out there who knows what's going on could clarify. I'd also like to remind people that such air ambulance services tend to be run on voluntary lines so are always in need of support in the form of donations, publicity and of course new corporate sponsors.

Anyway, if it is true, I hope Virgin will reconsider and ensure this essential service will continue to operate.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Shame on you richard branson

thats disgrace wonder anything to do with tax reforms on tax relief.

Apparantly lots charities reporting threats pulling out funding due to changes. Its disgraceful all these businesses and individuals just did it to tax avoidance rather goodness of there heart.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...-relief-budget

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

We don't know the full facts here, but it does seem that the changes in Government policy for tax relief on the larger donations are misfiring. I suspect that, whether this particular sponsorship is true or not, it's harsh to be blaming Richard Branson.

One can hardly blame donors who if they had given £100,000 saved themselves perhaps £25,000 of tax liability (OK I don't know the actual amounts percentages, but you get my drift) now if they donate £100,000 they still have to find a further tax on having eared that £100000 that they donated. A double whammy? That money has to be found somewhere and if it's now diverted to government coffers it can't go to the charity.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

It's a bloody disgrace that the air ambulance is dependent on donations in the first place.

Emergency services should be directly funded from tax funds. Not dependent on the whims of businesses or private individuals.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

agreed totally



Sorry rob meant to say that there no proof its this reason for the pull out over tax relief purposes.

Stand by its shame disgrace on branson for pulling out.

Not as if he cant afford it. I hope u-turn his decision

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

What's it got to do with Branson ,at last count he only owned 6.5% of VM

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

It's not Virgin Media, but the Virgin Group that offer sponsorship.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Except that the sponsor appears to be the Virgin Group ( not just VM) and one of the trustees is a member of the Virgin group.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I've always found it very confusing as what connection Branson has with Virgin nowadays :dunce: even so this decision (if true)is from the virgin group and not solely Bransons decision

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

It's not Bransons fault! Your being stupid, check your facts before ranting.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Well I just hope he never needs an air ambulance. whether it's his fault or not.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

http://www.upxsuccess.com/leadership...d_branson.html

This comes from article on strategic decision making virgin group brand.

I have no doubt the initial sponsorship is very much inline with richard branson thinking of his branding of his company.

He has spent millions on all sorts of crazy stunts to get his virgin brand known to the world and set up image caring company.

Whether he now takes major decisions now is debatable I will accept but it needs to get widespread coverage.

Bad press Virgin Group gets he will intervene and reverse the decision if he honest as the image he shown.

Hopefully air ambulance will do this to get the situation highlighted not just to shame virgin group but find new sponsors.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

OK

Please produce real evidence that Virgin have done this in the first place and second then produce evidence that Richard Branson was the person who made the decision if it has been made to remove this funding. Go on i dare you to produce the evidence to backup you accusation or should you stop accusing someone of something they have not done

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Why shame the Virgin Group ? it's a decision they may or may not have made ,either way it is a decision that hundreds of companies make every day ,by your logic every company that doesn't sponsor charities etc should be shamed .You are being pathetic and totally overreacting to something that even the OP has acknowledged may not be happening

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I really do think it's a tad early to be blaming Richard Branson. As yet we don't know if this story is true or to what extent, if any, VM's sponsorship will be affected. I hope it isn't true as I think it's a wonderful cause for VM to be associated with. Having said that, I'm sure there are other large organisations who might feel that supporting this cause would and keeping the air ambulance running would do their reputations a lot of good. It'd be small change for some of the major banks for example...

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I dont think you can really have a go at someone for deciding to stop sponsoring a charity. At the end of the day they've given LOTS of money they didn't have to over many years.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

:clap:

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I said he would set the deal up this article said it was his receptionist who made him aware HEMS funding issue.

http://www2.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=16906

You need ask OSEM Sirius

I trust OSEM is right afterall I dont live in london. He honest poster might not agree with some people views some like yourself mine but Osem not been bad poster.

However its not on there web which question was this hoaxer. There article national coaches donated £25,000.

http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/news

However doing some googling came across this this cant aboded well. Its about the charity setup oversee the air ambulance funding in 2009 and CEO resignation.

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-396484.html

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

:clap:

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Spot on.:tu:

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

FYI

http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/ro...uture-funding/

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I'm 100% behind that too!

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

NO

You are the one who started the blame, You was the one who mentioned Richard Branson You are the one who should answer and produce the evidence that HE made the decision SIMPLES

Or ADMIT you was wrong to blame Richard Branson

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

So it looks like OSEM's doorstep caller could have been conducting some sort of scam.

---------- Post added at 22:33 ---------- Previous post was at 22:27 ----------

As others have said, you can't criticise a company for withdrawing sponsorship. They have paid huge amounts of money over many years. The Daily Express sponsored HEMS before Virgin. And in most other counties they are funded by private donations and charity fund raising. Personally I think it is wrong that they have to rely on handouts, as the helicopters should be an integral part of the Ambulance service. After all, police helicopters are paid for out of their budget.

What I do think is that the government should waive VAT on the fuel they use.

---------- Post added at 22:35 ---------- Previous post was at 22:33 ----------

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Tim Deegan would agree with that would go further any provisions charities as whole.

Sirius do think I am wrong now as it looking like Virgin not pulled out with mine hugh research. My fear was a invaluable service was put at risk with original posers call. It has not branson company not pulled out. Thankful for the sponsorship he done will continue.

Incidently Cameron looking u-turn the decision to limit donations for UK charities. Which thankful right thing to do but think something got to be done on bogus charities.

Which will be good news for Air ambulance service.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ax-relief.html

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Perhaps the sequence of events before posting should be -

Read
Research
Post

Rather than
Read
Rant

;)

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

:clap:

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

What? and go and cloud the issue with facts? - come on man! this is the internet! :)

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

I'm always very cautious about dealing with chuggers and doorstep callers believe me. I don't think it was a scam as they weren't asking for money - in fact the guy who knocked at my door refused a cash donation. He explained that they do have other sponsors but were concerned about losing their main one and the effect it might have on the service. Judging by the quite lengthy conversation we had (sadly we've been fairly regular ambulance users over the years due to our youngest's various problems) he was a very knowledgeable and articulate guy and certainly knew all about the various conditions my son suffers and the emergency medication he has to carry (which is not even carried by ambulances). I find it hard to believe that an opportunist scammer would know much, if anything, about such things.

Given what I've read here I reckon it was more a case of he and his colleagues (I saw a number in neighbouring streers a bit later on) garnering long term support for the service using the Virgin 'decision' to raise awareness of the situation (i.e. it being run on a charitable basis) and spur people to donate. Not necessarily entirely honest, but not really a scam either.

I'll be having a chat with some of my neighbours later and see if I can shed any more light on this.

Found their website:

http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/be-involved

No sign of anything related to Santander but Virgin still prominent. :confused:

Update:

Curiouser and curiouser...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...Ambulance.html
This article from 2011 states that the Santander money is in addition to Virgin's sponsorship so I wonder if Virgin has very recently decided to review that situation and that's what my visitor was referring to?

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Who cares if it's Richard Branson's fault or not, blame him anyway.

Put enough blame behind it and he could feel pressured into helping to restore the sponsorship, and his good name ;)

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

You could be right. It sounds like they were trying to do what they do in every other county that doesn't get sponsorship, and were looking at possible donations in the future.

I've actually worked with the London air ambulance on many occasions, as until individual counties got their own, they used to cover the home counties also for some incidents involving serious trauma. But they now rarely leave London. You would think with the population of London, that fund raising wouldn't be the same problem that it is in the more rural areas.

---------- Post added at 11:49 ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 ----------

Are Virgin Money linked to Santander?

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

It was originally a startup with Norfwich Union (Aviva) so no official link with Santander.

What is being overlooked is whether Virgin Group (and or Mr Branson personally) is looking to give to another worthwhile (and maybe not London centric) cause. I believe Virgin Money's r sposnorship of Newcaste Utd inherited from Northern Rock is also due to end this season

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Yes that could very well be true and I'm sure VM (like many big companies) supports various good causes in various places, not just London. Anyway, I'm certainly not in the anti-Richard Branson camp and who knows if he's had anything to do with this matter, if indeed there's any truth in it. Hard to believe though that, in 21st C Britain, vital front line services like this rely on charity.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Very true. Personally I think it's disgusting, especially when the government have paid for specialist ambulance service teams to be set up, and to run until after the olympics. But they can't even finance essential services that are needed on a daily basis, and always will be.

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Essex Air Ambulance are even using animals to raise money :D

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/04/54.jpg

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Why a cow?

Re: Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??
 

Who knows. Cows seem to do some strange things in that town:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/04/50.jpg

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/04/51.jpg