THE AIR AMBULANCE LOTTERY - BY BILL PEARCE

1988 was going to be, one way or another, a year of great change for me. I had for 16 years been commercial manager of Plymouth Argyle Football Club, making a major contribution to the club's finances through the years of falling attendances, increased cost on the transfer market and players' wages and the upkeep of ground and facilities. To the man in the street, this may give the impression of a very contented, successful and well satisfied career man.

Not so, in my case, however. The death of my son Robin from leukaemia at the age of eleven in 1985 had left a scar on my life which seemed impossible to erase. I felt in a rut, generally disenchanted and needing the challenge of something new, worthwhile and of benefit to others to free me from the over-riding depression which the loss of my son had brought.

It was just after my contract with Plymouth Argyle had expired that the First Air Ambulance came into my life. This, I felt, may be the thing I had been looking for, the motivation needed to get my world into gear again.

Whilst at Argyle, I had introduced the country's first and most successful football lottery competition, an idea that had been studied and subsequently copied by even the most prestigious clubs in the Football League. Being a true born and proud Cornishman, I wondered whether something similar might be achieved to help the country's first helicopter ambulance service which I knew had existed for over a year in my county, solely on the strength of public subscriptions.

My offer of help having been accepted by the First Air Ambulance Service Trust, the first step was to organise a network or couriers and agents throughout the county. My experience told me this would not be easy. The lottery boom years of the 1970's were long gone and bearing in mind that over 20,000 tickets would have to be sold each week to make the enterprise viable. I anticipated a hard task ahead of me. This proved not to be so, however. Thanks to the help extended to me by the trust Chief Executive Margarette Worden and her helpers and the eagerness of the general public to support their Air Ambulance, the lottery was soon underway and the target figure of ticket sales achieved. To many people who had brought tickets the incentive of a £1,000 weekly top prize was not needed - all they wanted was to help keep Cornwall's life-saving helicopter service in the air. By Christmas 1988 over 30,000 tickets were being sold each week, a remarkable return, bearing in mind that distribution was limited mainly within the county itself.

A few years ago, a very difficult decision needed to be taken, and taken quickly, at that!. We had survived the advent of the Saturday National Lottery, but when they started the Wednesday night draw, our scratch-card sales started to decline rapidly. The decision was whether to close our lottery down completely, or to revitalise it with a fresh and revamped format, geared to taking our Air Ambulance helicopter forward into the 21st century in style.

Having scoured the country for inspiration, I settled upon the idea of a limited membership weekly draw, offering participating members the opportunity of over eighty cash and other prizes every week. With ten unique numbers in each and every draw, this gives every subscriber EIGHT HUNDRED chances of winning a prize for the modest outlay or just one pound.

As an added incentive and in the belief that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", all members are also offered a group entry with ninety-nine others into every National Lottery draw as long as their payments are up to date. The new lottery, styled "Cornwall Air Care Lottery", was launched at the Air Ambulance's tenth birthday celebration, held at the Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge on 30th March 1997. By mid-May we had sufficient members signed up to make the new scheme viable and the first draw took place amid great publicity on the 19th of that month.

If you would like more information about joining the lottery, you can contact Bill at:
Bill Pearce,
15 Coombe Drive,
Cargreen,
SALTASH,
Cornwall
Tel: 01752-844500