Queen’s Jubilee birthday honours: Ambulance founder 'humbled' at MBE

Patrick Peal, a former chief executive of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, has been made an MBE

A founder of the East Anglian Air Ambulance service said he was "humbled" to have been made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Patrick Peal, 68, from Norwich, helped set up the service in 2000 and was its chief executive from 2014 until his retirement last year.

Mr Peal, who still volunteers for the air ambulance, said the honour "takes my breath away".

He was honoured for services to emergency care in the region.

Mr Peal said: "I'm just humbled that my colleagues, friends, peers, whoever nominated me thought I was worthy of it."

The former engineer spent many years at Lotus Cars in Norfolk, before he and two others developed the idea of starting an air ambulance in in the county, in the late 1990s.

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At the start, the air ambulance provided a one-day-a-week service operating from Norwich Airport with a crew of a single pilot and paramedic.

As of June 2021 there was full 24/7 helicopter cover out of Norwich and Cambridge across the East of England.

Mr Peal integrated the air ambulance into the NHS regional operation, expanding operation to cover four counties.

He also led a project to achieve full 24-hour coverage by helicopter which was achieved on the day he retired.

Under his stewardship the service's annual income increased from £8.5m in 2014 to £14m in 2019.

Others in Norfolk who have been recognised in the honours list:

• Margaret Seaman, 93, from Caistor, Norfolk for raising £50,000 for hospital charities through her extraordinary knitting installations

• Sarah-Jane Douglass, 52, from Norwich, for setting up the Taverham, Thorpe Marriott & Drayton Covid-19 Help Group at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, for elderly and isolated members of the community, as well as a local food bank

• Natalie Bissessur, 32, Wretham, Norfolk, manager of Sunnyside House care home. During the pandemic, she moved into the home with her husband where for 11 months they cared for all 13 high-risk residents, whilst the rest of the team were furloughed. None of the residents developed Covid

All three women received a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to their community.