Sophie, Countess of Wessex, in her capacity as president of St John Ambulance in the Priory of England and the Islands, recently presented two ambulances to St John Ambulance Malta.
The ambulances were donated by the East Midlands Ambulance Service in the UK and were brought to Malta by volunteers from the Royal Navy, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Ministry of Defence and Royal Auxiliary Air Force, who recently arrived in Malta on board RFA Mounts Bay.
The work was coordinated by Jonathan Knight, president for St John Ambulance (First Aid and Nursing) – Malta.
RFA Mounts Bay was in Malta along with three other ships – HMS Bulwark, HMS Illustrious and MV Hartland Point – which are taking part in a three-month training deployment to the Mediterranean involving more than 3,000 sailors and marines.
After the presentation, the ambulances were blessed by the two St John Ambulance chaplains – the Chancellor of St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Canon Simon Godfrey and the vice parish priest of Christ the King parish church, Paola, Fr Vincent Deguara.
Prince Edward, who is chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award International Council, was in Malta to attend the 11th International Award Forum. He leaves today, while the Countess of Sussex left earlier in the week.
St John Ambulance’s fleet undergoes periodical upgrades or replacements. Such ambulances are also used in national emergency exercises, such as the Novex 2012 nationwide exercise and the full-scale aircraft emergency exercise held recently at Malta International Airport.
Being a voluntary organisation, St John Ambulance relies mostly on donations as well as the commitment of its uniformed volunteers to carry out the primary mission of caring for the sick and assisting in emergency situations. Volunteers spend on average 2,000 hours a year, during which approximately 500 casualties are treated.
St John Ambulance is currently seeking to raise funds to transform an area in Paola into an ambulance training centre, which will also include garages that will house the fleet of ambulances. This land was provided by the Government a few months ago.