St John Ambulance Donation

Volunteers at the St John Ambulance unit in Whittlesey are to benefit from a generous donation of £500 from local plastics manufacturer RGE Group. These funds will be put towards new equipment to ensure that the unit can continue to provide lifesaving first aid in the local community.

The funds were raised through an ice bucket challenge undertaken by the site’s former Operations Manager, Kieran Tharme, after he was promoted to UK Head of Operations. The funds were raised by all at RGE Whittlesey and its sister site at RGE Godmanchester and were collected by Jackie Edwards, one of the company’s first aiders. Kieran very kindly agreed for the money to go to St John Ambulance as a result of his challenge.

Richard Appleton, Production Manager at RGE Group in Whittlesey, said: ’After Kieran agreed to take up the ice bucket challenge thrown down by Brian Oliphant, the Setting Manager, we knew that we wanted to donated the proceeds to St John Ambulance in the town. Not only are they local, but they have been very supportive over the years in the training of all first aiders we have on site. It was a pleasure to see Kieran and over our donation of £500 today to help them continue to work in the local community’.

Pauline Richards, St John Ambulance’s Whittlesey unit manager, who received the cheque on behalf of the charity today, added: ‘We’re so grateful to all our friends at RGE Group for the wonderful donation. Our life savers will benefit directly from this and will continue to be the difference between a life lost and a life saved in and around Whittlesey. We’re also very pleased to have been invited on a really interesting tour of RGE Group’s premises in the town and look forward to maintaining our close relationship with them in the future.’