A Defender for life

WMD-Defender-March

Land Rover recently donated a 110 Defender County to St John Ambulance West Midlands, for use at the first aid charity's public duties in Coventry and in difficult terrain across the region.  

The vehicle was donated through Land Rover's Motor-Vate scheme – an incentive programme designed to improve attendance at Land Rover.

Savings made by cutting absenteeism have been shared with employees and the local community to provide the vehicle, which was presented at Land Rover 'Experience' Centre, Solihull.

We are extremely grateful to Land Rover for this very generous donation, and I would particularly like to thank the employees and the Land Rover Community Committee who have made it possible.

Richard Green
County Executive Officer, St John Ambulance, West Midlands
It has had some special adaptations to make it suitable for medical use, amongst these are the fitting of:

  • a sump guard
  • a tow hitch
  • a snorkel for driving through floods
  • the removal of seats, so that patients on stretchers can be easily carried off.

St John was nominated for company support by Scott Wiggins, who works in Land Rover's legal department. Scott is also a Divisional Officer with St John Ambulance's Coventry-based Allesley and Jaguar Combined Adults division, where he has been a member since 2005.

Land Rover's Operations Director, Alan Volkaerts presented the Defender to Richard Green, County Executive Officer of St John Ambulance West Midlands. Handing over the keys, he said:

'Thanks to the on-going improvement in attendance by our employees, we are able to support yet another worthy cause with an invaluable vehicle donation. The Defender represents 'true breadth of capability' and will be able to assist St John in a wide variety of situations.' 

Receiving the keys, Richard Green said: 'We are extremely grateful to Land Rover for this very generous donation, and I would particularly like to thank the employees and the Land Rover Community Committee who have made it possible.'

The Defender will become an indispensable part of the St John off-road fleet of ambulances in poor weather or in difficult driving conditions.  Phil Sprigg, who runs the vehicle fleet, said:

'We currently have 65 vehicles altogether in the West Midlands, of which nine are 4x4's.  There are duties we attend where the terrain is so rough that road ambulances simply can't reach the casualties.  We need to be ready to respond in all situations and to all needs, so this Defender will be extremely useful.  And, as a Solihull resident myself, I'm delighted to see a company and a charity working together here.'