RACQ boards the ‘Heart Bus’
Posted on
22nd September 2016
Queensland’s largest Club has jumped on board the Heart of Australia, donating $300,000 to help keep the service on the road.
RACQ will sponsor Heart of Australia for the next three years as part of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to regional Queensland.
Providing assistance on the roadside for more than a century and more recently in the air with RACQ LifeFlight Rescue, the partnership is another way RACQ is making a difference in the community.
“The Heart of Australia sponsorship is a really natural fit with the assistance pillar of our organisation,” RACQ Head of Community and Education David Contarini said.
“Let’s face it, people in regional areas do it tough and they are a long way from help if things go bad.
“What better way to provide value back to them than by giving them the same type of critical care and treatment that we take for granted in the cities.”
Mr Contarini said being able to provide assistance to people broken down on the roadside, to people in critical care situations in the air and now with a state-of-the-art service like Heart of Australia, was completing a full circle.
“This (Heart of Australia) is a bit of a spin on what we already do, because we are now helping to prevent these critical care situations from occurring, as well as responding to them,” he said.
“Not only do we have helicopters in the air as a critical response, we also have this wonderful service on the ground which is providing diagnosis for people who may have some type of lurking heart condition,” he said.
Heart of Australia founder, cardiologist Dr Rolf Gomes, said RACQ’s ethos of supporting people in their day-to-day lives was similar to what he hoped to achieve with his mobile cardiology service.
“Having them come on board is fantastic,” Dr Gomes said.
“So many people relate to the RACQ as being there when you need them and, similarly for our service, the sentiment building within these regional communities is that we’re looking after them, too.”
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