THE Wiltshire arm of global electronics manufacturing firm Fabrinet UK has hosted a number of fundraising events, culminating in a charity ball, as part of an ongoing initiative to support the Wiltshire Air Ambulance in the development of its new airbase in Semington.

Fabrinet joined the WAA’s 100 Club in March last year and pledged to raise £10,000 for the Airbase Appeal. In total the company and its employees has raised a staggering £12,000.

Jenny Goward, HR director at Fabrinet UK said: “Wiltshire Air Ambulance is a tremendously worthy cause, we have been supporting them for a number of years and our employees do an outstanding job in working with us to raise funds.

“We are delighted to have raised such a significant amount and surpass our pledge of £10k. We have had a lot of fun over the past year with the different fundraising events and I would like to thank everyone who supported us including some of our customers and suppliers.”

Jenny and other colleagues from Fabrinet UK visited Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s new airbase at Semington on Thursday to present the £12,000 cheque to the charity. They saw the helipad, the Flight and Operations Centre, the charity team office, training suite and visitors’ viewpoint, which looks over the helipad.

Jenny said: “The new airbase looks fantastic and we are so impressed with the facilities it has for the charity team, aircrew and visitors. Having the charity team and the aircrew on the same site will have many benefits. We are proud to have helped fundraise for this wonderful new facility that will benefit all of Wiltshire.”

Valerie Whistler, partnerships co-ordinator at Wiltshire Air Ambulance, said: "We are so delighted to have the support of Fabrinet UK, who have not only met but absolutely smashed the £10,000 fundraising target as members of the 100 Club.

“The employees and friends of Fabrinet have done an outstanding job raising £12,000 and we would like to say a massive thank you to them. We were delighted to show them round the new airbase.

“The money they have raised has been significant in completing the building and equipping of our new airbase in Semington, which will help to ensure the long-term future of Wiltshire Air Ambulance and enable us to continue to save lives.”

The airbase is being fitted out before it becomes operational by this summer.