John Casson Foundation welcomes BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner as guest speaker to a fundraising lunch which raises just under £31,000 for the Cornwall Air Ambulance

Tuesday 11 October 2022

At The Idle Rocks hotel in St Mawes, Cornwall on Friday 30 September 2022.    

In 2004, while reporting from Al-Suwaidi, a district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Frank Gardner was shot six times and seriously injured in an attack by al-Qaida gunmen. One of Frank’s spinal nerves was hit in the attack and he was left partially paralysed in the legs. Frank was medevacked back to the UK and was taken by air ambulance from the airport to hospital, for which he has always been grateful. After 14 surgical operations, seven months in hospital and several months of rehabilitation, he returned to reporting for the BBC in mid-2005, using a wheelchair or frame. In that year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours, Frank was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to journalism.

Frank give up his own time to come down from London to speak at the charity lunch as he has a strong connection to the work of air ambulances.

He gave an amazing talk about his experience when he was shot and nearly killed in Saudi Arabia in 2004, the lifesaving help he received, his slow recovery and then his views on Ukraine, Russia and Putin. The audience was captivated!

Generously sponsored by Arbuthnot Latham and Ellis Wharton Wines 65 guests enjoyed a sell-out event with an outstanding lunch with Champagne and great wines, the service was absolutely first class, a faultless experience and a great credit to The Idle Rocks who excelled!

With a raffle, auction and many generous donations just under £31,000 was raised for Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Organiser John Casson, of the John Casson Foundation, said: “When Frank Gardner was medevacked back to the UK after being shot in Saudi Arabia in 2004 it was an air ambulance that transferred him from the airport to hospital for which he has always been very grateful. A much respected journalist and reporter, I could not ask for a better speaker with current events going on in Ukraine, Russia and Putin.”