About Us

Our Responders - Volunteer Critical Care Consultants

Dr Andrew Heavyside

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Andrew is a Consultant Anaesthetist. He developed his interest in pre-hospital care whilst at university in Aberdeen and completed his training in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine with Great Western Air Ambulance Charity over 2019-20. In a varied career to date, to complement his base specialty training, Andrew has completed additional posts in Paediatric and Neurosciences Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Major Trauma. He has also served as an officer in the Royal Navy. Outside of work Andrew enjoys scuba diving, walking in the countryside and is slowly learning to fly.

Dr Glyn Thomas

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Glyn has been a Consultant Cardiologist in Bristol for over ten years and specialises in the treatment of heart rhythm disorders which can lead to sudden cardiac death. Having witnessed first-hand the importance of pre-hospital critical care in his patients, he undertook additional training in Anaesthesia, Paediatrics, and Trauma to become a Critical Care Doctor with Great Western Air Ambulance in 2019. During his training, he served as an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Glyn is usually to be found enjoying the outdoors or on the water with his two boys.

Dr Mark Tehan

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Mark is an Emergency Medicine and Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine consultant. He trained in London and the East of England before becoming a consultant in 2018 and then moving to live in South Gloucestershire. Mark also works for Magpas Air Ambulance. Outside of work, Mark enjoys walking Tali the Labrador and good food.

Dr James Tooley

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James has been a Consultant in Paediatrics and Neonatal Intensive Care for more than ten years and works full time as a Paediatric and Neonatal Retrieval Medicine Consultant based out of Bristol. He is also a Critical Care Doctor for Great Western Air Ambulance. We are delighted that James is our clinical director. When James isn't in the back of an ambulance he likes to spend time at home with his wife and two children.

Our Trustees

Andrew Heavyside

Chairman

Andrew has been involved in BASICS since 2008. He passionately believes that critical care should be available to patients  ...

Dr Andrew Heavyside

Andrew has been involved in BASICS since 2008. He passionately believes that critical care should be available to patients 24 hours a day wherever they are injured or become ill and that voluntary schemes play a key part in this. 

From a fairly junior stage he took an interest in clinical governance and service development; sitting on a hospital trust clinical governance committee, playing a key role in improving the pre-hospital capability of the medical teams on a large military airbase and later expanding and rebranding another BASICS scheme. 

He is keenly involved in the charity sector, where he has volunteered as a doctor to facilitate holidays and activity camps for those with serious illnesses and disabilities as well as planning several large-scale fundraising activities.

He is relishing the challenge of being the founding Chairman of Bravo Medics and looking forward to how this will impact positively on patient’s lives in the local area.


James Tooley

Clinical Lead

James has a proven track record in developing clinical services in the South West of England. He is the founder and clinical lead of a world class  ...

Dr James Tooley

James has a proven track record in developing clinical services in the South West of England.  He is the founder and clinical lead of a world class Neonatal Transfer Team based in Bristol.  Involved in BASICS since 2015, James took over as Chairman of BASICS South West in 2018.  He firmly believes that pre-hospital critical care should be available to the most seriously ill and injured patients at all times of day and night. He is therefore very keen to help develop Bravo Medics as a robustly governed critical care scheme to assist his local community. 

Blair Sasada

Trustee

Blair has a long-term commitment to the charity sector. He has been volunteering with a charity helping people with disabilities since his final years at school  ...

Blair Sasada

Blair has a long-term commitment to the charity sector. He has been volunteering with a charity helping people with disabilities since his final years at school. This has involved: fundraising, communications, the organisation of activities in the UK, across Europe and the Middle East as well as several years on the charity’s committee. Closest to his heart is the more hands-on role of being a volunteer care assistant on the many activities the charity organises.

Blair's professional background is in marketing and fundraising. He has worked for a number of healthcare organisations, including a pancreatic cancer charity where his role was to raise awareness of the disease.

He is interested in healthcare and is passionate about the world-class service that the NHS provides; so is delighted to be founding trustee of Bravo Medics.

Blair and his wife enjoy travelling and are currently exploring New Zealand, where a 13 hour time difference helps to keep timings of trustee meetings interesting!

Frederick Stourton

Treasurer

Freddie qualified as a doctor in 2019 and works in Hampshire. He has had an interest in pre-hospital care from an early stage in his career  ...

Frederick Stourton

Freddie qualified as a doctor in 2019 and works in Hampshire. He has had an interest in pre-hospital care from an early stage in his career, including a stint as a voluntary Emergency Responder for London Ambulance Service. 

He has previously been involved in a number of charity and community organisations. He spent 4 years on the committee of a youth volunteering charity, which included the organisation and management of a yearly trip for over 250 people. He is used to managing money, including the accounts of community organisations with a significant annual budget. 

He is keen to develop a sustainably funded service that provides round the clock critical care.

Where We Work

Based in Bristol and Avon we are primarily tasked to patients in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset – but we also attend incidents in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Wales when our specialist skills are required.