Nambour National Seniors handed a $1000 cheque to RACQ Life Flight last Monday after member Florence Loweke cut her hair for the cause. 

Life Flight volunteer Geoff Clements told members about the importance of the Life Flight emergency helicopter service by relating a common scenario of people suffering a brain bleed.

“Currently there are no neurosurgeons on the Sunshine Coast,” he said. “The nearest is in Brisbane. We can have you in Brisbane, where a surgeon is waiting, scrubbed up, within half an hour. And that’s a matter of life and death.

“And I can quote several people that have been through that and that have either survived or they just have minimum brain damage. So the service is essential to everybody. Plane crashes, emergencies at sea. From the Sunshine Coast alone, we’re doing five and six missions a day. 

“But we have to go out and try and raise whatever we can to keep the service going. And we know in these times, times are pretty hard trying to fundraise, and we work like heck to try and get money to service the guys. 

“Our crews, our pilots are the best in the world, our paramedics are certainly the best in the world. And we’re the envy, or people are envious overseas of us here in Queensland for what we do. And we do do a lot of training of paramedics for overseas people. So that’s how highly we’re considered.

‘Plane crashes, emergencies at sea. From the Sunshine Coast alone, we’re doing five and six missions a day.’

“So once again, on behalf of Life Flight, thank you ever so much for what you’ve done, and I can assure you that whatever money you do give, goes straight to where it’s needed. It doesn’t go to some fat cat. It goes to the ground floor where people need it. So just rest assured that your money will be well-spent. And once again, thank you very much.”

• The Club meets at Nambour Heights Bowls Club the second Monday of the month at 9.30am.