After re-opening earlier this year, Machynlleth’s Ascona service station presented a donation of £40,000 to its charity partner, Wales Air Ambulance.

On November 12, Ascona presented a cheque of £40,000 to Wales Air Ambulance, with the aim of raising £100,000 for the charity over the course of a year long partnership.

 Ascona made an initial donation of £10,000 in March 2023 to celebrate the start of the partnership and has now added to the total through various fundraising activities over the past few months since the station re-opened in August 2023.

The service station hopes that the partnership will provide support to the life saving charity, in their mission to deliver emergency medical care to people across Wales.

Darren Briggs, Founder and CEO of Ascona Group, commented: "Since we launched Ascona in 2011, supporting our local communities has been at the heart of everything we do so I am very proud that we are able to support the Wales Air Ambulance in their vital work.

“I am thrilled that we were able to make another significant donation to the charity, and we remain on track to hit our ambitious fundraising target which will help to ensure this fantastic charity can continue to deliver lifesaving medical care to people across Wales." 

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The cheque was handed over at a ceremony held at the Machynlleth station, which underwent a £3 million redevelopment project that took several months to complete. The build brought an increased number of fuel pumps, an HGV lane and space for two electric vehicle charging points as well as car wash facilities.

The £40,000 donation will go towards the necessary £11 million Wales Air Ambulance requires each year to keep the helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the roads across Wales.

The charity relies entirely on charitable donations to provide its funding.

Mark Stevens, Head of Fundraising, Wales Air Ambulance Charity commented: "We are all amazed at the level of support from Ascona Group.

“This is certainly the most ambitious pledge received from a business to the charity in recent years. Working with Ascona on the partnership has been positive and rewarding. It is very rare to partner with a business that demonstrates such high levels of Corporate Social Responsibility.

“On behalf of all crew, staff and patients, thank you."