While many of us will spend Christmas Day tucking into turkey and enjoying a festive tipple with family and friends, frontline staff across north and mid Wales will spend their day working for the Wales Air Ambulance.

For the Wales Air Ambulance, Christmas is very much a “normal day” at work, but with an extra bit of festive sparkle and camaraderie.

The crew will be waiting in the wings to help those in need across Wales and will do all that they can to turn what might be the worst day of somebody’s life into a better outcome.

The all-Wales Charity needs to raise £11.2 million every year to keep its helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the road all over Wales, 24/7 – even on Christmas Day.

The service is delivered via a unique Third Sector and Public Sector partnership. The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) supplies highly skilled NHS consultants and critical care practitioners who work on board the Charity’s vehicles.

One of the Wales Air Ambulance Christmas heroes working in Caernarfon in Gwynedd on Christmas Day is Critical Care Paramedic/Practitioner Carl Hudson.

The dad of two is in his 30th year of frontline NHS Service, spending more than 20 years of service working for the Wales Air Ambulance. He is based at the Caernarfon base having started there at the beginning of the North Wales Operations in 2003.

He has worked many Christmas Day’s helping to serve the people of Wales and says there is always a good atmosphere amongst colleagues.

Carl, 49, said: “Having been a frontline paramedic for pretty much my entire adult life, working Christmas Day is very much an accepted part of working life for me.

Over the years, I have worked many Christmas Days, and although anyone would much rather be at home with their family than in work on Christmas Day, it’s really not at all bad. Due to the long hours that we work, it’s often the case that you actually see more of your work colleagues than you do of your family, so your colleagues are very much considered as your ‘work family’.

“We have a great team. Most days there’s plenty of laughs and camaraderie to be had, and Christmas Day is certainly no exception. Add into that a few silly little gifts that we buy for each of the Christmas Day crew, a decent selection of tasty treats, and usually a Christmas dinner that has kindly been provided for us, often by a local cafe or restaurant, and the day becomes as similar to a day at home as we can make it - the only exception being that the wine and champagne at dinner is swapped out for blackcurrant squash and Shloer, but you can’t have everything!

“Invariably, in this line of work, there are some incredibly sad cases that we attend to, even on Christmas Day, and these events resonate with the crew even more so at this time of the year, especially as we think of those affected. Once back on base, the team will often then de-brief the incident, usually with a cup of tea, and then we try our best to set it aside, so that we may be ready for whatever comes next.

“This year, for my family and I, Christmas Day will be pushed into Boxing Day, which will become our Christmas Day instead. In this line of work, it is accepted by your family that your Christmas family dinner is very much a moveable feast!

“When my children were younger, we would get everyone up very early, actually, ridiculously early, 4.30am, so that we could open presents with the children and have some quality time to spend with them before heading off out to work for 12 hours.

“Nowadays, my children have all grown up and are in their twenties and will be home from university, so we shall open our presents when I return home from work on Christmas Day around 9pm, so those very early starts are no longer required. Thank goodness!

“I’d say that although being at home on Christmas Day is preferable, we accept that in our career, working it is just part and parcel of the job, and it’s ‘just another day’. However, we always ensure that it is still a special one and we make the very best of it.

“Hopefully, we will not be needed on the big day, because that means that everyone is safe and well. However, if we do attend an incident, although we may go home with a few remnants of the day in our minds, we will go home knowing that we have helped someone when they most needed it and provided the very best care possible. I wish everyone a safe, healthy and very happy Christmas and New Year, Nadolig Llawen!”

“Knowing I am there to hopefully save someone’s life is rewarding all year around but more so at Christmas time. “

Simon Cartwright, Critical Care Practitioner, will spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day working at the Wales Air Ambulance’s base in Welshpool.

It will be his first Christmas working for the Wales Air Ambulance, having joined the charity two years ago, and he said he is looking forward to working with the team. Christmas Day for him will start like any other operational shift but with a bit of festive morale from his colleagues.

He said: “Like any other day, we will check the medical kit and equipment to ensure we are ready for the day and prepare the aircraft and rapid response vehicle. The day very much depends on whether we will be dispatched to anyone who needs us across Wales.

“We are planning on making a team Christmas roast dinner and will be eating plenty of mince pies.

Extra efforts are made at Christmas to increase morale. We have our Christmas tree up and we do a ‘Secret Santa’ on base. It’s my first Christmas with the Wales Air Ambulance so I’m looking forward to working with the team. There’s always good camaraderie. We are a small team which thrives on supporting each other.”

Simon will work a 12-hour day from 8am to 8pm and will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day evenings with his girlfriend, her family and also his own family.

He said: “I will hopefully have some Christmas leftovers when I go home on both days - I love a Christmas dinner. I have Boxing Day off so will have a good catch up properly with everyone then. For me, the best part of working at Christmas is knowing that we are here to help someone in their time of need.”

“It’s like spending the day with my ‘second family.’”