JEAN welcomed new and existing members – we now have 25, then Marion read the March minutes.

Ideas for the jubilee tea are still welcome, and Wendy has agreed to be our vice-president.

Sandra collected our deposit for the trip to Stratford-on-Avon on July 4.

Three members enjoyed the spring meeting at Abberley.

The competition at the garden meeting on the June 6 celebrating the Diamond Jubilee will be a jubilee hat, cake or bookmarker.

A table top sale is on May 26, at the Baptist Church Hall, between 9am and 2pm. Ideas are wanted for further outings.

Our speaker was Mark Wilkins from the Air Ambulance Trust.

He is an ex-helicopter pilot with some very interesting facts.

All pilots are ex-servicemen, and the two paramedics on board each helicopter are paid for by the NHS.

Every helicopter costs £4.5 million and its yearly running cost is £1.5 million.

Road accidents account for 60 per cent of missions, horse riding 10 per cent, farmers 15 per cent, and then sport on Saturdays.

They are usually airborne within two minutes and arrive 19 minutes later at the farthest call within the West Midlands area.

All new hospitals have landing pads. There are six helicopters within the West Midlands area, and funds are required constantly to buy and maintain them.