Hands up who watched Celebrity Masterchef on Tuesday evening?

If so, you would have seen the brilliant Essex & Herts Air Ambulance featured on the hit BBC show.

Celebrity MasterChef 2022 continued this month with semi-final week - with the top eight celebrity contestants from the heats cooking for 70 air ambulance pilots, medics and support staff who work for the life-saving charity.

The line up of celebs included former Eastenders actor, Cliff Parisi; musician and TV Judge, Danny Jones, Love Island star, Faye Winter. musician, Mel Blatt; drag performer, Kitty Scott-Claus, former footballer and Jimmy Bullard.

The top celebs in each heat progressed through to the final stages - to go head to head to be crowned the new Celebrity MasterChef champion - with last night's episode coinciding with Air Ambulance Week.

Designed to raise awareness of its lifesaving work.  Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust is joining other air ambulance charities across the UK - with everyone at the brilliant, life-saving charity delighted that their work coincided with the mass catering episode of Celebrity MasterChef 2022, which took place at its airbase at North Weald.

Air Ambulance Week

The Air Ambulance Week campaign titled Critical Moments – Lifesaving Difference, is aimed at highlighting how air ambulance charities make a crucial difference in critical moments. Anyone, anywhere in the UK could become a patient at any time.

Each EHAAT Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) team consists of a Pilot, a Co-Pilot, a Pre-Hospital Care Doctor and a Critical Care Paramedic. These air ambulance crews can be rushed to the scene of an incident, with life-saving support equipment to deliver advanced clinical care that is normally only found in the hospital emergency department. Once stabilised, the patient will be conveyed by air or land to the most appropriate hospital for their needs. 

In 2021, EHAAT attended 2,545 missions; 1,317 missions were delivered by air ambulance and 1,228 missions were delivered by Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs). These comprised of 991 medical emergencies, 485 road traffic collisions, 419 accidental injuries and 650 other trauma incidents. 

Emma Barker, Head of Income Generation at EHAAT said, "Our committed, highlyskilled, critical care team remain dedicated and ready to help when someone is having the worst day of their life.

"Each mission costs on average around £2,200, but as we receive limited direct funding from the Government and none from the National Lottery, we rely heavily on the generosity and goodwill of the local communities of Essex and Hertfordshire.

"We can't fly without you, and we are very grateful to our sponsor, Specialist Aviation Services (SAS), who is supporting us during Air Ambulance Week. 

"But now more than ever, we need support from the people and businesses of this region."

There are lots of ways to get involved during Air Ambulance Week, visit their website to find out more.

About Air Ambulances UK

 Air Ambulances UK is the official national charity that champions, supports and represents the lifesaving work, of air ambulance charities, enabling them to save the lives of even more people who suddenly experience a life-threatening injury or medical emergency every day across the UK

There are 21 individual air ambulance charities in the UK, which provide pre-hospital care support to the NHS and form an important part of the UK's frontline emergency services.

There are 37 air ambulance helicopters operated across the 21 individual air ambulance charities

Air ambulance charities collectively make an average of over 100 lifesaving missions every day – that's over 30,000 a year