I must respond to your article on air ambulances (news focus, 29 July). While writing about the London air ambulance service, Virgin HEMS, you quoted an 'insider' as taking the view that Virgin, as sponsor of the service, gets a lot of publicity for contributing about £4,000 a year. As any real insider would tell you, such a figure is highly inaccurate and very unfair. Virgin actually owns our current helicopter and contributes capital costs of around £192,000 a year. It also administers the Virgin HEMS charity free of charge.

We are very grateful for the invaluable support Virgin has given to HEMS over recent years, which has been crucial to the continuation of service that relies on charitable donations to top up its allocated funding.

Jill Williams

Operational manager

Virgin HEMS London