Glasgow Street Aid

Glasgow Street Aid

October 2024

Each year the new Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights, champions and supports an individual charity of their choice. In addition, the Wrights will support other charities, give prizes to students and support grantees during the year too.

This year, Deacon Judy Tayler-Smith’s chosen charity to spotlight during her year is Glasgow Street Aid. The Wrights have just donated £3,000 to this well-deserved charity, which is run entirely by volunteers.

Glasgow Street Aid is a pre-hospital medical and welfare charity helping tackle the pressures on both the ambulance service and A&E departments, by providing on scene care in the city centre of Glasgow. Their volunteers come from all walks of life and take on different roles with the charity from being a control room dispatcher, fundraiser or building support worker, to being a part of their medical street team who are First Aiders, First Responders (FREC 3 and FREC 4), Ambulance Technicians, Registered Nurses, Paramedics, Doctors, and students within different healthcare fields. They do this by having crews of two volunteers patrol areas of the city centre as well as having their A&E equipped ambulance crewed by experienced volunteers, to transfer those who need further support to A&E safely, or provide treatment in their treatment centre, located in the heart of the city on Union Street.

Deacon Judy and Consort Simon visited Glasgow Street Aid’s Medical Centre and ambulance a few weeks ago, during the Doors Open weekend. They were well looked after by Special Projects Lead, Alison Hepburn and the team. It was a very informative visit, and Alison mentioned the replacement of their ambulance, due to the current vehicle having very high emissions. The Wrights hope that their £3,000 donation will help towards the refitting of the ‘new’ (second-hand) ambulance which the Charity have recently acquired from an hospital in Manchester.

Area Service Manager, Rebecca Blair, wrote to Deacon Judy: 

“Thank you so much for the kind and most welcome email. I have passed on your kind words to Alison Hepburn who worked so hard to make our 2nd Doors Open day a success. I'm glad you enjoyed the tour of our premises and learned about the work our volunteers do.

We are indeed getting a new vehicle ready to go on the road so this donation will help us achieve this goal. Thank you again on behalf of all the volunteers at Glasgow Street Aid, it really is such a nice gesture and we appreciate it so much.”