Wednesday September 14, 2022: While St John Ambulance pulls out all the stops to deliver medical care to crowds in London and Windsor, many more of the charity’s volunteers are supporting their local communities.

As the nation marks the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, around 2,000 volunteers have offered their support with the lying in state and funeral.

A further 1,300+ are making sure people are safe by providing first aid at more than 200 events all over England, during the period of national mourning – covering everything from football matches and concerts, to the Great North Run and proclamation ceremonies that took place over the weekend.

Meanwhile, St John volunteer vaccinators remain busy supporting the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme and many more are being recruited to meet demand.

The charity’s acting Director of Health & Volunteering Operations, Dan Bevis says: “It’s times like now that really show the character of St John people; their skills, compassion and relentless determination to serve their communities.

“As an organisation, we are proud and humbled to be playing a vital role in national and local events. Our volunteers and employees are truly extraordinary people and I would like to thank each and every one of them for their contribution.”

In addition to scaling up its work this week, St John Ambulance is planning beyond next Monday’s funeral.

Over the weekend of September 24 and 25, St John teams will be kept busy supporting major events including Birmingham Pride and the Bristol Half Marathon, while the TCS London Marathon – one of the charity’s biggest regular deployments for more than 40 years now – is on Sunday October 2.