On Saturday 10th November, we took part in the Lord Mayor's Show, the annual parade that marked the inauguration of the 685th Lord Mayor of the City of London. Our staff, ex-patients and volunteers walked alongside 6,500 participants, including the new Lord Mayor, Alderman Roger Gifford, and Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis. The London’s Air Ambulance float enabled the crowd of over 500,000 (and millions more throughout the world) to visualise what our service is all about, .
Human Aid UK, the international charity based in Whitechapel, which aims to alleviate the suffering of the poorest people world-wide, turns its attention to the local community by aiming to raise £5,000 in 2013 for London's Air Ambulance. The partnership was initiated by Human Aid supporter, Runu Miah, who was treated by our charity in 2009.
Skoda UK and Preston Motors provided us with two additional Skoda Octavias during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, temporarily increasing the number of vehicles in our fleet to eight. The cars would enable us to get extra teams to the scene in case of a major incident and they served as a back-up for our existing vehicles.
The Movember edition of London's Air Ambulance team and our charity's MD902 Explorer. London's 'Hair' Ambulance has raised over £600 through their Movember page.
From left to right: Stuart Whitford, Neil Jeffers, David Rolfe and Mick Horton.
Only eight months after being hit by a bus, 40-year-old personal trainer Rachid Afouzar ran his first marathon for our charity in Berlin. He is already preparing to repeat this success in Marrakesh on 27th January and will conclude the fundraising triplet in London on 21st April 2013. The marathon trio adds up to 78 miles — almost twice the diameter of M25 - that Rachid will accomplish a little over a year after his accident.
On a fresh winter’s morning on Sunday 9th December, thousands of jolly Santas gathered in Greenwich Park to take part in DoItForCharity Santa Run 2012. Participating in the 5km run on behalf of London’s Air Ambulance were our ex-patient and his family, future paramedics and some of our wonderful supporters from FirstGroup.
44-year-old Kirk Cross, the Olympic Torch bearer from Hornchurch, has been keeping the spirit of the Games up after the world watched him carry the Olympic flame down the Orsett Road, Grays on 6th July 2012. Nominated as one of the Olympic inspirational personalities by his sons’ school Head Teacher, Kirk raised almost £600 for us within his local community. “The fundraising gave me an excuse to dress up again in my Olympic uniform,”he says.
Coutts has exceeded its annual target of raising £50,000 for our charity, as their 2012 charity partner. Coutts’ Products, Services & Marketing team dug deep to raise more than double last year’s charity donation, culminating in a grand total of £51,705.60. Numerous fundraising activities were organised throughout the last twelve months, including comedy nights, a sponsored abseil and a 10k run. Other activities organised included a silent auction; a wine tasting evening; a treasure hunt around London; a squash tournament and a raffle.
Our supporters purchased 25,000 raffle tickets, raising a gross £41,000 in excess. Thank you to everyone who participated at London’s Air Ambulance Christmas Raffle 2012! We are delighted to announce the winners drawn on 21st December by The Woods Group Limited. The results are as follows:
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Graham Hodgkin to the role of Chief Executive Officer. He joins at an exciting time of rapid transition for the Charity and will lead the service through its next stages of development and growth. In addition to enhancing the current service, Graham will seek to secure additional funding to transform the scale and impact of the charity’s operations including the critical acquisition of a second helicopter.
