14th August 2025
This week, Freddie van Mierlo, MP for Henley and Thame, visited Thames Valley Air Ambulance at RAF Benson to learn more about the life saving care the charity provides across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
During the visit, Freddie was given a tour of the facilities and shown the charity’s helicopter, gaining insight into how their highly trained team delivers hospital level care at the scene of an emergency, whether by land or air.
Thames Valley Air Ambulance provides critical care to people in their most urgent moments, responding to thousands of incidents every year. The most frequently attended incident is heart failure where seconds matter, but the service also attends road traffic collisions, sporting accidents and other serious and life-threatening emergencies. From advanced medical equipment to expert clinicians, the service is designed to give patients the best possible chance of survival and recovery.
The charity receives no government or NHS funding for its emergency service and relies entirely on donations from the public to continue operating.
Speaking after the visit, Freddie van Mierlo said:
“It was an honour to visit Thames Valley Air Ambulance and see first hand the extraordinary work they do.
Their commitment to delivering world class critical care in emergencies, often in the most challenging circumstances, is nothing short of inspiring.
It's often thought that the purpose of the air ambulance is to be the fastest on scene. While this is true, TVAA is unique in also being also to provide hospital level care on scene, even capable of performing life saving operations like open heart cardiac massage at the site of an incident.
I encourage everyone across Henley and Thame, and the wider region, to support this vital service however they can.”
To learn more or to support Thames Valley Air Ambulance, visit: www.tvairambulance.org.uk
