DLA Piper and Overbury renovate charity shop for Midlands Air Ambulance

DLA Piper has worked with Overbury, who delivered the fit out of their brand-new offices in 2 Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, to renovate one of Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s shops.

The project saw the charity’s West Bromwich shop – one of their hardest-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic – fully renovated across the volunteer areas including the office, corridor, stairs, canteen, breakout area and toilet facilities.

Andrew Wood, Managing Director of Overbury Central said “Overbury was happy to provide its services on a complimentary basis to such a worthy cause. Midlands Air Ambulance relies entirely on support from local people and businesses so our passionate team was delighted to help deliver a vibrant new environment for the volunteers to work in.”

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity is the largest air ambulance service in the UK, responsible for funding and operating three air ambulances across the region and two critical care cars across Birmingham, the Black Country and Worcestershire. The charity responds to some of the most traumatic incidents including cardiac arrests, road traffic collisions and sports injuries.

Midland Air Ambulance Charity has been DLA Piper’s chosen charity for a year and a half, having extended their usual ‘charity of the year’ pledge due to the pandemic. The charity is particularly dear to the firm’s team as the service saved the life of one of their Birmingham lawyers, Simon Wright, after he was in a serious road traffic collision and required the service’s dedicated pre-hospital care. 

Trevor Ivory, Birmingham Managing Partner, said, “We have seen first-hand the lifesaving work of the Midlands Air Ambulance when they saved the life of our own Simon Wright, and so our support for this fantastic charity is very personal. We are very proud to have been able to support the Midlands Air Ambulance through the pandemic and it was great to be able to work with Overbury to make sure that the charity was able to directly benefit from our significant investment in new offices in the region..” 

Pam Hodgetts from Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said, “Working with DLA Piper and Overbury is extra special due to the personal connection with Simon. It really helps bring a passion and drive to the partnership when the employees have seen first-hand the value of the work we do. The pandemic has made office fundraising very difficult, so all of us at the charity are very impressed and excited by the way the DLA Piper team have helped, and are especially grateful to the support given to our West Bromwich charity shop.”