Red Cross volunteers help get health staff into work during snow disruption

Volunteers have been supporting communities affected by the heavy snowfall across Wales.

The British Red Cross has been helping to transport health professionals to hospitals and patients in North Wales, assisting essential ambulance and local council services in South Wales and supporting vulnerable people affected by power cuts in Bethesda and Deiniolen.

In Merthyr Tydfil, volunteers have been helping essential local services including a homeless shelter in the town.

South Wales Red Cross volunteer Graham Pain drops off essential supplies to a vulnerable person who had run out of food in Cardiff. Credit: Red Cross

So far the British Red Cross has

  • Transported 26 key staff working for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to and from hospitals and community-based patients in North Wales.

  • Worked with North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and the RNLI to enable the transport of a further 18 hospital staff in the region.

  • Supported an elderly man in Rhuddlan who needed blankets, hot water bottle and a sleeping bag when the heating in his home stopped working.

  • Transported key supplies to a vulnerable person with diabetes who had run out of food in Cardiff.

  • Transported staff to and from care homes and a homeless shelter in Merthyr Tydfil.

  • Supported Wales Ambulance Service NHS Trust by transporting key staff to its Blackwood centre.

  • Worked with Scottish Power to offer welfare support to vulnerable people affected by power cuts in Bethesda and Deiniolen.