For the Lions Club of Busselton it was a no-brainer to donate $15,000 to the Busselton branch of the Royal Flying Doctor Service given that more than half of its members have used the service.
More than 740 people in the Busselton region used the RFDS in 2016 giving them access to life-saving medical treatment in Perth, averaging two patients a day.
Of those 131 were patients under 15 years of age, and 50 were babies less than one month old.
The RFDS in WA needs to raise $9 million each year in community donations to ensure it can continue providing its service which helps people in regional and remote areas of Australia get to medical care they cannot access near home.
The Lions Club of Busselton president Geoff Littlefair said they regularly made donations to the RFDS and upped the donation they made last year.
“Our members are very passionate about giving support to the RFDS and sending it through the Busselton branch,” he said.
“The service is used a lot in this part of the world.”
The Royal Flying Doctors Service fundraising team president Alison Cunningham said the donation from the Lions Club was a good chunk of the money which they try to raise each year.
Ms Cunningham said the organisation the donations covered gaps from funding they received from the federal and state governments and corporate donations.
“In Busselton, we aim for $40,000 we can probably put our feet up now,” she said.
“It is very exciting for us.”