A charity set-up in memory of local paramedic Dai Rees has received a boost from three recent fundraising events.

The Dai Rees Foundation received a magnificent £8,000 in total from the events, including a music hall evening, sponsored stroll, and one local lady who walked Hadrian’s Wall!

Lyn Sandall, of Saundersfoot Strollers, raised £700 for the foundation when she personally walked Hadrian’s Wall, whilst the Strollers’ own sponsored walk and social evening held at the Swallow Tree venue (kindly provided by John and Ann Hancock) saw £800 raised.

Dennis Reed in his position as president of the Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society this year chose the Dai Rees Foundation for his main fundraising event held at Folly Farm on June 26, where an evening of ‘Music Hall’ entertainment took place raising an amazing sum of £6,500 altogether.

“We are particularly grateful to Lyn for all her hard work organising and her own personal challenge of Hadrian’s Wall, and to Dennis for choosing Dai’s charity for his main fundraiser and all the work he has put in behind the scenes and also on stage on the night,” said Dai’s mum Tina.

Dai, who founded both the Maldivian Sihhath Initiative and Life Support Nepal, tragically passed away aged 30 in a diving accident in the Maldives in 2014, and the Foundation was set-up as a registered charity to continue his work with rural communities across the world to create and improve access to pre-hospital emergency care.

To date its paramedic volunteers have completed seven tours to the Maldives and two to Nepal, and are currently focusing on many different projects in areas that could benefit most from our support.

The most recent trip took place in May and June when a team of four paramedics went to the Maldives to deliver pre-hospital training and equipment donations.

This trip was extremely successful, and more people were able to receive more training than ever before.

The vision for the Dai Rees Foundation is to create a legacy for Dai’s tireless work by developing lasting relationships with foreign health authorities, hospitals and local communities, with the focus to provide on-going facilitation and support to current pre-hospital emergency services.

The ultimate goal is to implement a self-sustained program of development for local communities resulting in local health-care providers having an increased knowledge, confidence and skill base to provide a high standard of care, subsequently reducing avoidable death.

For more information, please visit www.daireesfoundation.org/ and for a light-hearted and entertaining blog of the events of the latest and previous trips, please visit https://msicharity.wordpress.com/