Road safety campaigner joins trustees of charity which funds hospital helipads to help save lives

A road safety campaigner who has done much to help make Britain’s roads safer after the death of her own son is turning her attention to faster emergency care by joining up with a Walsall-based charity.

Meera Naran MBE has become a trustee of the County Air Ambulance Trust HELP Appeal which is dedicated to funding NHS hospital helipads.

The charity opened its first helipad in Oswestry in 2009 and has facilitated 34,500 landings at hospitals across Britain since then.

Founded in Walsall as one of the trustees was a director of South Staffs Water where the charity still has an office, each helipad helps to save on average 20 minutes time to get a patient to hospital for critical care.

Meera was awarded the MBE for services to road safety in 2021. She started campaigning after the death of her eight-year-old son Dev in a motorway accident in 2018; the eighth anniversary of his death at the end of May will be marked at home quietly with her family.

She was made an MBE for her tireless campaigning, which helped to secure a £900 million commitment of Government funding, 18 national policy changes and crucial changes to the Highway Code.  

In January 2026, the Government’s Road Safety Strategy included a consultation on Dev’s Law, proposing the mandatory introduction of 18 new vehicle safety technologies, including Autonomous Emergency Braking.

She now hopes to help raise the profile of the HELP Appeal and highlight the vital work it does in providing helipads and critical care cars.

Each helipad can cost anything from £500,000 up to around £6 million for a rooftop pad and a fully equipped critical care car around £70,000.

Meera said: ”I came across the HELP Appeal when they funded a new helipad at Glenfield Hospital near to De Montfort University where I work and was struck by their initiative and hard work with a relatively small team, which deserves to be recognised.

“As with road safety campaigning, the ultimate aim is to make a positive impact for the greater good.

“I hope that my experience can support the HELP Appeal in its journey and mission to help save lives and raise awareness.”

HELP Appeal chief executive Robert Bertram said they were delighted to have Meera on board and her experience and energy would be invaluable.

He said: ”We have helipads across the Midlands in Hereford, Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry and have plans to eventually install one at New Cross in Wolverhampton.

”The work is ongoing nationwide and it isn’t just installing the helipads but maintaining and restoring them like the one at Oswestry, which was our first.

“Our work is nationwide so we need to keep ourselves in the spotlight nationally and raise awareness of the vital role a helipad can play in helping critical care patients.”

Michael Henriques MBE, chairman of HELP Appeal, said: “Meera’s depth of experience across government policy and working with ministers, combined with her national profile and commitment to public service, will be invaluable as we continue to fund lifesaving hospital helipads.

“Her insight and passion align perfectly with our mission and we very much look forward to working with her.”

For more details on the HELP appeal, visit https://helpappeal.org.uk/.