Faith leaders from across Cambridgeshire travelled to Alconbury Weald to take part in a blessing of the £7m new headquarters and training centre for Magas Air Ambulance. After hearing from the charity’s founder, Dr Neville Silverston MBE, leaders representing different faiths gathered at the front of the new building.
They took it in turn to bless the base in different ways, all thanking the people and the work undertaken within the building for its important impact on the community.
The religions represented at the event, by 14 different community and faith leaders, were Bahá’í, Buddhist, Catholic, Church of England, Hindu, Islam, Methodist, Orthodox Jewish, Reform Jewish and Sikh.
The centre was opened last month by its patron, HRH The Princess Royal, with the charity’s staff, clinical and aviation teams moving in the weeks following.
The building has been designed to better support the growing 24/7 service as well as enhance the wellbeing of the Magpas Air Ambulance crews.
Additionally, being based in Alconbury Weald—just a stone’s throw away from the region’s major trunk roads—the location of the new building, combined with its bespoke design optimising crew dispatch, will reduce activation times too. This will enable the charity to respond as quickly as possible to patients in life-threatening emergencies across the region.
Magpas chief executive officer Daryl Brown MBE DL said: “The event was a wonderful way to reflect on the importance of our new charity base and the work all our team members undertake from the facility.
“Our clinicians and aviation team in particular have hazardous elements to their roles and bringing a multitude of faiths together to wish them well in their work and bestow positive affirmations on staff and the building was an important occasion for many.”
Magpas has been working to build its new home for the past six years.
The building, designed by MCW architects and constructed by Lindum, includes a state-of-the-art training centre, and is equipped for 24/7 operations with well-being and rest facilities for crew and clinicians.
It also has new community and patient facilities on site—including a new dedicated space for patients and their families to visit the charity and meet with the clinicians that treated them, away from the bustle of day-to-day operations.
Here’s the link if you wish to support the work of Magpas https://donate.magpas.org.uk/
