As I sit here in a mild Tel Aviv evening, I am reflecting on our recent dedications from our UK donors whose generosity never ceases to amaze me – both in life and death.

MDA UK has just dedicated two fantastic stations in the North of Israel – Bat Hefer and Nesher – where they are so desperatley needed and will undoubtedly help to save thousands of lives in the future.

The final part of the day was the dedication of two further ambulances who will also go on to save the lives of thousands during their operational life.

I always find it a privilige to attend these dediations first hand and get to understand why the donors or in the case of one of the stations and one of the ambulances, their executor’s chose to donate to MDA.  What is clear is these people are all so well aware of the importance of donations to this worthy cause.

MDA in Israel is heavily reliant on donations from the Diaspora and of course it goes without saying that donations of this size are truly amazing, but we mut never loose sight of the fact that any donation really does make a difference in helping to save a life.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in North Tel Aviv having a well deserved espresso having been up since 0530 in order to join the crew of one of Tel Aviv’s Mobile Intensive Care Units (MICU). Thankfully I have never needed to be the recipient of any ambulance care so I really had no idea what to expect.

I soon realised the professionalism of the staff and was told how the MICU’s are so advanced in terms of equipment on board including the level of medicine able to be prescribed by a paramedic rather than a doctor as is the case in many other countries.

The patients and their families were so grateful for the care received and couldn’t thank us enough when handed over to the hospital’s team.

Where this differs from our NHS is simple – 90% of MDA’s staff are volunteers and the service would simply not be sustainable without their help. Both staff and volunteers and staff are totally dedicated to this NGO. Ronen and Meir, the two paramedics I was privileged to spend the shift with have close to 50 years of loyal service to MDA between them!

Put simply, MDA is hugely reliant on donations from the community in order to keep it operating and ultimately to save lives.

Thank you Ronen and Meir for the experience.

As I sit at my desk three months into the role as Deputy CEO, I am contemplating the irony of our NHS sending a team to Israel to be trained by Magen David Adom.

The NHS has set up a special ambulance unit called HART (Hazardous Area Response Team), which is in place to respond to chemical incidents, mass casualty situations and complex rescues and it realised that MDA Israel is superbly equipped to advise on this matter.  So, what is so ironic you may ask?  It’s quite simple really and is a question I am asked all the time – why does Israel not provide an equivalent to the NHS.

Here is a country’s emergency response service, an NGO, recognised as being one of the best in the World that takes pride in hosting the NHS and other state providers of emergency treatment, but itself receives little or no Government funding.  When I first had the privilege of meeting the staff of MDA and visiting some of the projects, I was amazed that a staggering 90% of its 13,500 workforce are volunteers.  Without these volunteers, MDA simply could not afford to run.

I’m going to find out more about this myself in two weeks’ time when I will join the crew of a Mobile Intensive Care Unit in Tel Aviv for a shift – watch this space to see how I get on!

Whilst we can all debate how the Israeli ambulance service differs from that provided by the NHS, it does not change the fact that without our funding from your donations, MDA simply would not be able to save as many lives.

The sun shone all day yesterday in Eton for our eight Triathletes who participated in a gruelling 4oom swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run all in aid of Magen David Adom.  Over £7,000 has been raised to date and more is expected.  Congratulations to all who took part, including our Chair of Young Patronage, Daniel Geey who was always on hand to help with the much-needed technical advice.

And they're off....

Good luck to all our Christian friends who are performing in the final of Gospel Rocks on Friday. Thank you Celestine King our CFMDA London representative for all your support on the evening!

Today, I approved the Red Shield newsletter to go to print. It’s full of interesting stories about the work of MDA here in the UK and in Israel. Look out for it arriving on your door mat over the next week or so.

A huge thanks to Danielle Ross and our friends in Cambridge for hosting the annual garden party in aid of MDA yesterday.  The community rasised over £1500 towards the vital work of MDA.

I was delighted to be able to address over 600 students from the King David High School & Yavneh campus in Manchester this morning.  The school is comitted to raising the funds for a first response motorbike and will dedicate it in May 2012.  Thank you to Brian Levy and all his staff for their continued support.

Eli Benson and I are fresh back from our Manchester dinner.  Huge success, 200 guests with great speakers in Robert Peston, BBC’s Business Editor and Chaim Rafolowski, MDA’s Head of Emergency Managment.  Thank you to all our supporters and Jeremy Hart and his committee.

Great news – the YMDA pub quiz which is to be held on Tuesday 21st June @ The Betsy Smith in Kilburn sold out in less than a week.  Good luck to all those taking part.