Wiltshire Air Ambulance Charitable Trust has appointed three new trustees to help take the charity forward.

Brian Stables, 58, of Bradford on Avon, a company director of Profex Associates Ltd and chairman of the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust, is one of those appointed, along with Mandy Wood of Chippenham, a local authority tenancy sustainment office,and Anna Cole from Lydiard Millicent, a solicitor ands chairman of Swindon and District Headway.

They join the current board of five trustees at a time when the charity has recently signed a major ten year contract with Heli Charter to supply a new state of the art Bell 429 helicopter, which will come into service at the end of 2014.

The new helicopter replaces the joint Wiltshire Police helicopter and air ambulance as the police are joining the national police aviation service. As a result of the change the charity will need to raise £2.5 million a year to keep the new air ambulance operational.

The trustees of the air ambulance give their time for free and their role is to ensure that the charity is running well, has the money it needs and spends its money sensibly on the activities the money was raised for.

Speaking about the new trustee appointments, Richard Youens, chairman of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Charitable Trust, said: “We were delighted with the high calibre of candidates that put themselves forward as possible trustees and it was no easy task to choose just three trustees from a strong field.

"However, we feel that in Brian, Mandy and Anna we have found people who not only bring unique skills to the charity but who also understand the county of Wiltshire and therefore will be able fully to represent its people and their aspirations at our board meetings”.

*The charity is holding its annual general meeting and review of the year on Wednesday, February 26 at Devizes Town Hall at 7pm.

If you would like to attend please email claire@wiltshireairambulance.co.uk