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Can Your Business, Organisation or Community Group Help? This January, BASICS Essex is launching The Big Essex Treecycle, a county-wide Christmas tree recycling campaign that will raise vital funds to support our volunteer emergency clinicians. Before we can make it happen, we need the support of local businesses, community groups and volunteers across Essex. Our aim is simple: after Christmas, residents will be able to donate to BASICS Essex and have their real Christmas tree collected and recycled responsibly. The funds raised will help our charity continue providing additional specialist medical support to seriously ill and injured patients throughout Essex. But we cannot do it alone! We're Looking For Local Partners We are currently inviting businesses and organisations to pledge their support and help us make the first Big Essex Treecycle a success. You could help by: Displaying posters, leaflets and QR codes in your premises. Promoting the campaign through your website, social media and customer communications. Encouraging staff, customers and supporters to take part. Providing volunteers to assist during collection period. Offering suitable vehicles or drivers to support collections. Providing storage space, yards or operational support. Sponsoring elements of the campaign. Whether you're a Christmas tree retailer, garden centre, farm shop, local business, community organisation or simply someone who wants to help, we'd love to hear from you. Why Support BASICS Essex? BASICS Essex is a charity that provides volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics to support seriously ill and injured patients across Essex. Our clinicians are dispatched to emergencies where advanced pre-hospital care may be needed, bringing additional skills, equipment and expertise directly to the scene. Unlike statutory emergency services, we rely entirely on charitable support to fund our vehicles, equipment, training and operations. By supporting The Big Essex Treecycle, you'll be helping us continue delivering lifesaving care to communities across Essex. Pledge Your Support Today We're currently building our network of supporters and partners ahead of the campaign launch. If you can help in any way, we'd be incredibly grateful if you would complete our short pledge form: Pledge your support for The Big Essex Treecycle Every offer of support, no matter how large or small, will help us create a campaign that benefits local communities, promotes responsible recycling and raises vital funds for BASICS Essex. Collection Bookings Coming Soon Public Christmas tree collection bookings will open later this year. Further details, collection areas and booking information will be announced in the coming weeks. For now, we're asking businesses, organisations and volunteers to join us and help bring The Big Essex Treecycle to life. Together, we can turn unwanted Christmas trees into lifesaving support for patients across Essex. Join us today and help make The Big Essex Treecycle a success. 🎄🚑💙

BASICS Essex Wins Pride of Essex Unsung Hero Award BASICS Essex is delighted and honoured to have received the Pride of Essex Unsung Hero Award, recognising the dedication and commitment of the charity's volunteer clinicians and support team who provide life-saving emergency care across Essex. The award was presented during a ceremony held at Anglia Ruskin University, with BASICS Essex Chairman Paul Gates accepting the award on behalf of the charity. He was joined by volunteer paramedic John Horton and Fundraising Officer Kim Turner. This prestigious recognition reflects the extraordinary work carried out by BASICS Essex volunteers every day and night. When called upon, our highly skilled doctors, paramedics and critical care practitioners respond to some of the county's most serious medical emergencies, bringing advanced pre-hospital care, specialist medicines and life-saving equipment directly to the scene. Much of this work takes place away from public view. Many of our clinicians respond in their own vehicles and often leave incidents without ever knowing the outcome for the patient they treated. Their focus is not on recognition, but on providing critically ill and injured patients with the very best chance of survival and recovery. Receiving the Pride of Essex Unsung Hero Award is a testament to the professionalism, compassion and commitment shown by every member of the BASICS Essex family. From frontline clinicians to behind-the-scenes volunteers, fundraisers and supporters, every person plays a vital role in helping us continue our mission of saving lives across Essex. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Broadway Belles WI for nominating BASICS Essex for this award and to Essex Freemasons for sponsoring the Unsung Hero category. Their support and recognition mean a great deal to our charity and volunteers. While the award may have been presented to Paul, it truly belongs to everyone who gives their time, expertise, energy and support to the charity. Whether responding to emergencies, raising funds, organising events or spreading awareness, your contribution helps ensure that advanced emergency care can reach patients when they need it most. Thank you to all our volunteers, supporters and fundraisers for making this achievement possible. Together, we continue to make a difference and save lives across Essex.

BASICS Essex has celebrated the extraordinary contribution of its volunteers and supporters at its Annual Supporters Evening, while reflecting on another busy year of providing vital pre-hospital emergency medical care across Essex. The event, held on Tuesday 22 September, brought together volunteers, fundraisers, supporters and corporate partners to hear about the charity’s work throughout 2025 and the difference their support has made to patients and communities across the county. BASICS Essex is a team of over 25 highly trained volunteer emergency clinicians, including doctors and critical care paramedics, who respond to some of the most serious medical emergencies across Essex. Dispatched by the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, the team’s clinicians bring enhanced medical skills, specialist equipment and advanced drugs directly to patients at the scene, when every second can make a difference. In 2025, BASICS Essex volunteers responded to 352 emergency callouts, travelling more than 4,400 miles to reach patients in need. These responses included serious road traffic collisions, cardiac arrests and other life-threatening medical emergencies. The Annual Supporters Evening was an opportunity to recognise not only the clinicians who volunteer their time and expertise to respond to emergencies, but also the individuals, community groups and businesses whose fundraising makes the charity’s work possible. £25,000 raised by Potters Resorts Among those celebrated was Potters Resorts, which has raised an outstanding £25,000 in unrestricted funding for BASICS Essex through its ‘Every Second Counts’ campaign. Team members have thrown themselves behind the campaign, organising and taking part in activities ranging from prize tombolas to team charity runs. The importance of the partnership was brought into particularly sharp focus when a BASICS Essex team doctor provided emergency CPR to an entertainer who collapsed on stage at Potters. The incident demonstrated first-hand why rapid intervention and emergency medical skills can be so important when somebody becomes critically ill. Nathan Moore, Head of Content at Potters Resorts, said:“We are proud and honoured to support the work of BASICS Essex. The message of saving lives is something that our team and guests have really got behind, and the incident just goes to show that you never know when you need them most.” The £25,000 donation has enabled BASICS Essex the flexibility to direct the money to where it is most needed and helping the charity continue to equip and support its volunteer clinicians. Recognition from the Broadway Belles WI The evening also celebrated the support of Broadway Belles WI, who recently nominated BASICS Essex for ‘Team of Pride’ at the Pride of Essex Awards. The nomination recognises the collective contribution of the charity’s volunteers and the commitment they show in making themselves available to respond to emergencies across Essex. BASICS Essex thanked the Broadway Belles for putting the charity forward and for helping to raise awareness of the volunteers working behind the scenes and on the frontline to support patients across the county. Terry Cornelius, Secretary at Broadway Belles, said; “None of the group had heard about BASICS Essex before volunteer John Horton came to do a short talk, which really inspired the members to learn more about the charity’s life-saving work in the community. As a collective, we raised over £10,000 for the BASICS Essex, and were pleased to nominate them for such a prestigious award – we wish them the best of luck!” Raising a glass with the new BASICS Essex Gin Supporters were also introduced to a new fundraising initiative created in partnership with East Coast Distillery – BASICS Essex Gin. The new gin provides another way for supporters to raise funds for the charity while increasing awareness of its work in communities across Essex. Anything But Basic Passion Fruit-Cello £28. Purchase from East Coast Distillery, Thorpe Le Soken, or via their website, with a donation from each bottle going to BASICS Essex. Responding through a challenging summer The evening also provided an opportunity to reflect on the challenges BASICS Essex has faced during the year, including the impact of the Rettendon explosion incident during the summer, which left significant damage to one of BASICS Essex responding vehicles, while forcing the charity to relocate to a temporary office location. The experience reinforced the importance of the community standing behind BASICS Essex. As a charity, fundraising is essential to maintaining its emergency response capability, providing specialist equipment and ensuring its volunteer clinicians can continue to reach critically ill and injured patients. Every donation, fundraising event and partnership helps make those responses possible. Paul Gates BEM, Chairman and Co-Founder of BASICS Essex, said: “Our Annual Supporters Evening is our opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to the volunteers, fundraisers, businesses and community groups who make our work possible. “Our clinicians give their time to respond to people experiencing some of the most serious medical emergencies imaginable, but they can only do that because there is an incredible network of people supporting them. “From Potters Resorts raising an amazing £25,000, to the Broadway Belles recognising our team through their Pride of Essex nomination, and our exciting new partnership with East Coast Distillery, this year has shown just how much support there is for BASICS Essex. “After what has also been a challenging year for the charity, that support means more than ever. Every pound raised helps us continue to be there when patients and their families need us most.” BASICS Essex is encouraging individuals, community organisations and businesses across the county to continue supporting the charity through donations, fundraising and partnerships. You can read more about their recent fundraising appeal and donate here https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/hqrecovery

As a small emegency medical charity, your donation will enable us to respond to more critical incidents across Essex, providing enhanced pre-hospital care to patients and help save lives across Essex. We do not receive any statutory funding and therefore rely solely upon grants and donations. Your donation will make a BIG DIFFERENCE!! ONLINE DONATION Donate to us through JustGiving to directly fund our lifesaving work. TEXT MESSAGE (SMS) To donate £5 , text ESSEX to 70085 To donate a sum of your choice, text ESSEX followed by the amount (no £ sign). Example: Essex 15 You will have the option to Gift Aid your donation via a reply text link. WRITE A CHEQUE If you'd like to donate by cheque, please make it payable to BASICS Essex Post it to: BASICS Essex, Unit 10, Office 1, Highlands Farm, Rettendon, Chelmsford, CM3 8EB Join our weekly charity lottery to help us raise funds, while also being in the chance to win some great prizes! Win prizes of up to £25,000 Christmas Mega Bundle prize Guaranteed BASICS Essex winners 50% of all tickets sold go to us Tickets cost just £1 per week Weekly Lottery Get your tickets Gift vouchers Lottery powered by OneLottery. T&Cs apply. See website for details.

​Find out how all our supporters are helping make a vital difference to BASICS Essex. Our Supporters BASICS Essex is grateful to the following businesses, trusts and foundations who support our medical emergency charity, as well as all our individual supporters and those who wish to remain anonymous. Supporters News Anderson Development Group - £15,000 Raised by London Marathon Runners Sep 5, 2024 National Lottery Funding Jul 16, 2024 easyfundraising Mar 7, 2024 See all news Supporter Highlight In November 2021, Smarter Metering Services Limited and Gas Emergency UK were extremely generous in donating us a new response car! Read more: New Response Vehicle #XC3 Following a generous grant from BASICS via the County Air Ambulance Trust's #HELPappeal , we have been able to purchase new PPE for all our autonomous responders and a X-Series Zoll Defibrillator. Read more: New PPE helmets for responders #HELPappeal Grant awarded by BASICS #HELPAppeal Our Clinical Sponsors Our Supporters Trusts and Foundations

BASICS Essex (British Association for Immediate Care Essex) is a network of volunteer emergency doctors and paramedics who provide immediate access to pre hospital Immediate Medical care. Corporate Support Learn More Public Education Book Now Your support helps to save lives in our local community. Text ESSEX to 70085 to donate £5 BASICS Essex ESSEX'S EMERGENCY MEDICAL CHARITY SAVING LIVES IN ESSEX FOR OVER 50 YEARS Our highly trained volunteer doctors and paramedics respond to incidents at the request of East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust , supplementing the outstanding service provided by ambulance clinicians. Our volunteers respond in our enhanced care vehicle or their own vehicles - anytime, anywhere in Essex. We work with the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) to provide advanced, emergency care training to our volunteers. What we do You can help us to save local lives We do not receive any statutory funding and therefore rely solely upon grants and donations. Ways to donate Recent News Five Reasons Why Your Community Group Should Consider Fundraising Activities Broadway Belles WI raises £10,000 for BASICS Essex in its tenth-anniversary year Fundraising can achieve much more than generating money for a good cause. It can bring people together, create new friendships and give members an enjoyable way to make a genuine difference in their community. The members of Broadway Belles Women’s Institute from Leigh On Sea have demonstrated exactly that, raising an incredible £10,000 for BASICS Essex, almost more than double the amount they ha BASICS Essex Rettendon Fire Statement: Charity extends gratitude to emergency services while launching community appeal. On Friday 24th July at approximately 4:50pm, BASICS Essex Headquarters, situated on Highlands Farm was directly affected by a fire and explosion, which was quickly classed as a major incident. Firstly, we would like to reiterate our sincere thanks to the outstanding firefighters and emergency services who responded with such bravery and professionalism, including many of our colleagues East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, in particular the HART team. Their actions ens National Lottery Funding Helps BASICS Essex Deliver Critical Care Across the County BASICS Essex is celebrating the ongoing impact of funding received from The National Lottery Community Fund, which is helping ensure critically ill and injured patients across Essex continue to receive enhanced emergency pre-hospital medical care when they need it most. The charity was awarded £20,000 through The National Lottery Community Fund to support the development and operational readiness of its volunteer clinicians. The funding has been used to support training and p All News Full kit carried by our autonomous responders Response Personal Protective Suit £600 Safety Boots £130 Rescue Helmet £150 Advanced Patient Monitor and Defibrillator £20,000 High visibility Jacket £250 Blue Light Fit to Vehicle £3,000 Portable Airway Suction Unit £600 Response Bag (Including Kit) £1,500 Total Cost £26,230 Help us provide kit to our responders Ways to donate Passionate about pre-hospital care? Many of our doctors are educators, teaching vital life saving skills to other emergency carers. To help enhance your skills, get in touch today. Contact us TCS LONDON MARATHON BASICS Essex have places available each year in the London Marathon. Run in aid of us and help to enable BASICS Essex to continue with our Voluntary life saving work. More info Join our weekly charity lottery Support us today by joining our new charity lottery, with a guaranteed cash prize every week! More info Subscribe to our newsletter • Don’t miss out! Email Join Thanks for subscribing!