READY, SET, RESPOND! – THE MCMAHON FAMILY MOVES TO HELP CRITICAL SAVE LIVES
15th October 2025
Yvonne and Hugh McMahon are fundraising as a family and taking part in Ready, Set, Respond! to give back to CRITICAL, Ireland’s leading emergency response charity. Their motivation comes from a deeply personal place in November 2021, Hugh’s life was saved thanks to the swift intervention of the Community Air Ambulance, a service first launched by CRITICAL or the Irish Community Air Ambulance as it was known at the time.
Now, Yvonne & Hugh together with their family are honoring that legacy by supporting the charity that made such a profound difference in their lives, while also championing the charity’s current mission. They recognize that CRITICAL’s current services remain just as vital today, and that its purpose is unchanged to save lives and empower communities across Ireland to do the same. So far, together they have completed 1,301 kilometres the milestone set by the charity and raised €13.000, with the goal of reaching close to €15,000 by the end of the challenge.
In 2021, Hugh sustained very serious injuries and was helped by the Irish Community Air ambulance (as it was known at the time) which landed in a field beside their home in Firies. Hugh, was airlifted to CUH in under 20mins.
Yvonne, Hughs wife recounts that it was the immediate intervention from the paramedics and getting Hugh to CUH in the minimum amount of time that played a critical factor in Hughs survival and thankful recovery.
“We as a family are forever grateful and acutely aware of how lucky Hugh was to survive and owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who looked after him be it the paramedic team and the excellent staff he encountered in his journey in CUH. I would be telling a different story here today if it wasn’t for the Community Air Ambulance coming to his aid back in November 2021 and making the right decisions at the right times. Raising awareness for CRITICAL for us is equally as important as raising funds for this service as life can change in the blink of an eye, thankfully we have a very positive story to share”
CRITICAL’s network of over 300 volunteer responders active in 21 counties is continuing to grow. It includes Emergency Doctors in locations such as Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Donegal, Dublin and Wicklow; Community First Responder Groups; and off-duty paramedics, EMTs, and Advanced Paramedics. They have responded to 1,462 medical and trauma incidents since the start of this year, already superseding last year’s 1308 responses.