I am incredibly proud to be leading this mission, a the work we do will undoubtedly save lives.
Op Zephyr is an international project to help establish a functioning ambulance service in the West African nation of The Gambia. To this end, the charity will be purchasing over 30 ambulances and support vehicles, even fire engines, from France and Spain, before driving them across the Sahara to deliver them.

Once in The Gambia, these will be donated to the most rural areas to support their community hospitals and the people that most depend on them.
The importance of this mission cannot be overstated; the levels of maternal mortality in the Gambia are unacceptably high and are ranked among the highest in Africa, estimated at 1,050 per 100,000 live births and are higher in rural than in urban areas. The manner of those deaths for mother and child do not bear thinking about. 

The number of deaths and amputations through late presentation of infected fractures and wounds is also unbelievably high. Amputations are deemed convenient because travel to aftercare at hospitals is impossible for complicated injuries. What start as relatively straightforward or even minor injuries, soon become life-changing or even life-threatening, simply due to the lack of a basic infrastructure. Our mission can change that.

The presence of an ambulance is something we take for granted in the UK, and I cant imagine what it would be like to live without this crucial service.
This mission will help make it so that the people of the Gambia will never have to choose to go without life-saving treatment, simply because transport is not available.

Thank you for your support.