Project Wingman – The charity

Established in March 2020 and running for nearly five years, Project Wingman was a well-being charity set up to support NHS care workers across the UK during the COVID-19 public health emergency of the early 2020s. Hospital staff across the country faced the most difficult time and worked hard to save lives in the most stressful conditions. They were true heroes and Project Wingman was proud to support them.

The charity was established by airline pilot Captain Emma Henderson and other like-minded individuals in the aviation sector, a sector facing its own COVID-19 tribulations with aircraft fleets grounded and tens of thousands of flight crew out of work. Project Wingman rallied over 6000 grounded, furloughed and redundant airline workers to provide a listening ear, a cup of tea and empathetic understanding in airline style lounges in the hospitals. In those spaces, healthcare staff were able to decompress, de-stress and unwind during the working day, and grounded aviation workers were given new purpose. The charity later went on to run a small fleet of converted double-decker buses taking these welfare lounges into hospital grounds, thus continuing to make care available in post-pandemic times from 2022 to 2025. Well-being training sessions for NHS staff followed and these continued when the charity closed, as a legacy programme. The charity itself was wound up in 2025, but we have kept this website because the story of Project Wingman is important and we are proud of what it delivered. We will publich more about the charity’s story shortly.

Project Wingman – Preventative Wellbeing Training

Training for NHS staff is still delivered to this day by volunteers who were involved with the Project Wingman charity that operated during the COVID-19 years and beyond. The Charity itself ceased operating in 2024 but made the decision to encourage the Preventative Wellbeing Training, which is now being delivered by LMQ Ltd, as a Project Wingman Legacy Programme. LMQ is not a charity nor a non-profit organisation, however its directors do strive to use any excess funds from the Legacy Programme to support NHS Trusts to develop their internal tutors.

Our vision is to help the NHS achieve a change in culture that we feel will improve not only patient safety but also efficiency and capability. We hope it will be an emotional reward for the thousands of our volunteers who went into hospitals from the beginning of COVID-19, for 5 years, to know they were part of an organisation that might significantly transform the NHS.

The flagship course “Civility and Developing Better Relationships” has been introduced now to almost 10 Trusts and there are over 40 NHS tutors certified to deliver the course.

The feedback has been fabulous and moving us towards our vision. Out of 555 respondents surveyed after the course by Harefield Hospital, 99% stated that the training will affect how they deal with situations at work and 99% that it would improve patient safety. 100% said they would recommend the course.

In the interest of transparency, the Trustees want to make it clear that the Project Wingman Preventative Wellbeing Training is managed and delivered by LMQ, a separate company. The charity (which was formally known as The Project Wingman Foundation Ltd Registered Charity 1189403 ceased operating in 2024 and its registration with the charity commission is in the process of being terminated.