2012 is Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance’s 5th Birthday year – and we intend to celebrate in style!   On Saturday 30th June 2012 we are holding our 5th Birthday Summer Fair at Popham Airfield, Coxford Down, Winchester (just off the A303) and we are looking for people and businesses, large and small, to get involved with the event, in ways such as booking a stand, providing an act for the Arena, or as an entertainer. 

Whether you sell cards, jams, paintings or vegetables or maybe you are a clown, a member of a dog agility team, a marching band, jugglers or magicians, we would love to hear from you.

If you would like at Stand or a Business Trade Stand, please contact Kirsty on Kirsty@hiow-airambulance.org.uk

If you would like to show an exhibit, have a display in the arena or are an entertainer please contact June on june@hiow-airambulance.org.uk 

In addition, if you work for a company that may have something that you are willing to lend or donate that will help with the running of the event (bales of hay, picnic benches, marquees and gazebos etc) we would be very interested to speak to you. If you can donate something, or give us a very reasonable price please contact Rosemarie on rosemarie@hiow-airambulance.org.uk

If you can help us with any of the above please do get in touch.  As you can tell it is going to be a fun filled family event, with something for everyone. We hope to have the Air Ambulance present so you look around the aircraft and meet the crew . The Fair will be open from 10am to 4pm, entrance is free and there is plenty of free parking.  We hope to see you at the HIOWAA 5th Birthday Summer Fair.

Kirsty

The Lasham Gliding Society’s 2012 Fun Run on New Year’s Day was held this year in support of HIOWAA, and raised the marvellous amount of £1309.   The youngest participant was Harry Gray, pictured, who at just under two years old, not only managed to toddle some of the way but also raised £89 in sponsorship! Well done Harry.    Many thanks to all those who participated in the event and helped raise money for HIOWAA, this really is appreciated.

We had a marvellous view of the Air Ambulance as they undertook a fly-by on their way back from a mission, which was really appreciated by everyone on the ground!    Many thanks also to, everyone who generously sponsored me – yes, I did complete it – and especially to Marjorie Hobby, the organiser of the event, who did a fantastic job, and who is pictured handing me the proceeds from the event, at Lasham Airfield.

June

       2012 is an important year for the whole nation as it is Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and of course the London 2012 Olympics.  But it is also a most notable year for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance as it is our 5th Birthday Year, having flown our first mission on 1st July 2007.  We will be hosting and attending a great many events throughout the year, some of which we will run ourselves, and some which are run for us by wonderful friends and volunteers, in the hope that as many as possible of our supporters will be able to take part in the celebrations of this important milestone in the history of the charity and the Air Ambulance.  

We have created a new logo especially for the Fifth Birthday Year, which you can see at the top of this blog, and this will appear on all the event publications, literature and publicity.  All events on our website which carry this logo will be specifically in support of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  A full list of all the events is on the events page, just click the Events button at the top of the home page. There will be one in your area and I look forward to meeting many of you during the summer and sharing this exciting year with you all.   

An important date for your diary is our 5th Birthday Party Summer Fair at Popham Airfield, on Sat 30th June.  This will be an exciting event with attractions for all the family including vintage vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, country crafts and activities, arena events, and of course the Air Ambulance will be present.   Entry is free and there is plenty of free parking.

If you would like to hold a fundraising event for HIOWAA, or you have one planned already and would like to use it to support the Air Ambulance during our 5th Birthday Year, please contact our Head Office on 02380 333377 and we will send out literature and the 5th Birthday Logo for you to use.

John

The countryside year kicked off at Sparsholt College over the last weekend of January with their annual Lambing Festival.  Over the two days an estimated 8,000 people ‘flocked’ to the event.    The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance stand was very well supported and it was such a pleasure to meet with many of our supporters, old and new,  who braved the extremely cold weather to visit the event.

This is becoming an ever increasingly popular start to the county show season and we would like to take this opportunity of thanking Graham, Helen and all of the Sparsholt Agricultural College team for making us feel so welcome.

Rog

Sunday 22nd January at Southampton Sports Centre saw the first event of the 2012 season for the Lordshill Road Runners Running Club from Southampton.

Just prior to the 5km run the club made a further generous donation to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. This comes on top of an earlier donation in May of 2011 and follows an incident in the New Forest in early 2011 when we were able to offer assistance to one of the club members. 

A huge thank you to all the members of the Lordshill Road Runners Running Club for the very generous donation.

Roger

It’s Bag-A-Bra Season, and it’s already got off to a great start as we’ve just received a bag of bras sent from Australia! Many thanks to the Lutheran Community Church in Canberra, your ‘support’ is greatly appreciated.

16 bras have also been donated by our Charity Manager, Sherie, so everyone else in the office will now have to turn out their drawers!

Pampered Passions in the USA are also collecting bras for us.

If you would like a pink bra collecting bag sent out to you, so that you can ask family and friends to donate their unwanted bras, then please contact the office on 02380 333377 or email me at june@hiow-airambulance.org.uk. Thank you.

As this is our 5th Birthday Year, why not ask five friends to donate five bras each? Or if you work for a company, why not see if you can fill five bags?    Your ‘support’ as always, is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

June

Local fitness centre, Studio Red, is holding a ‘spinathon’ this Saturday 28th January to raise funds for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  Studio Red is the largest studio cycling (Spin) and RPM Group Studio on the South Coast and opened late last year.  They aim to entice members of the public to take part by spinning, or riding static cycles, and raising money for the Air Ambulance.   Sat 28th Jan.  ASDA, Southampton.   10.00 am to 3.00pm.  All welcome, why not come along a give it a try

Sherie

We are fortunate in being offered the use of the charity shop in Whitchurch again, from 4th to 11th May 2012, so if you are having a spring clean, moving house or just have some unwanted items, then please would you kindly consider donating them to ‘our shop’. Thank you.

We can take, in good condition please, clothing, crockery, vinyl records, toys, books, china, dvds, cds, craft work ,plants, curtains, sports and camping equipment, glassware, unwanted gifts, bed linen, pictures, frames.   You can also drop off any unwanted bras for our Bag-A-Bra Appeal too.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept large furniture, videos, electrical equipment, cushions/pillows or towels.

We are also looking for volunteers to help ‘man’ the shop, so please let me know if you would be interested in helping.  We are also looking for people to help set up on Friday 3rd and dismantle on 11th May.    Many thanks

June

Each year, Douglas Stafford’s employees choose a local charity they wish to support for the year. In 2012 they nominated Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.   

 “We are very happy to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance,” says Douglas Stafford’s CEO Nigel Cook, “a very worthwhile charity which provides an efficient and prompt response to road traffic collisions, sporting accidents and many other incidents for people in Hampshire and on the island.

Our team raises money throughout the year thanks to sponsorship and participation to team events such as the annual dragon boat race here at Lakeside, or by organising raffles. We also have monthly ‘dress down’ days, when everyone wishing to leave their business attire behind for the day will contribute.    Everyone at Douglas Stafford wishes to help HIOWAA make this anniversary year a great fundraising success,” concludes Nigel.

For more information on Douglas Stafford, one of the leading performance specialists in the UK, call us on 0800 7831913 or go to www.douglasstafford.com. 

During our store collection before Christmas at Tesco Express in Ryde, we presented the store with a certificate of thanks.  Since they have had our yellow textile banks in their car park, they have raised over £30,000! So thank you to everyone who uses them and please carry on or start to use them.  People always ask us what happens to the items that go into the banks. Well 75% of what goes in are sold in second hand fair markets around the world. 24% is recycled and the last 1% is now being turned into fuel for cemen workst. So nothing goes to waste. Bagitup is the company which does all the hard work and give us 30% of the gross. In some county’s councils we received a recycling credit and that all comes to the charity. 

So once again thank you for your textiles and your support

Rosemarie

Thanks to the staff from the Co-operative supermarket in Ryde for dressing up for the day to raise funds for HAmpshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. They managed to raise a fantastsic £529.29 and they asked me to come along to the store to receive the money. I believe from what I heard they all had a great day. However, the following day the medical dress up was finished and they had to go back to their own uniform.  Thanks to them all for support.

Rosemarie

We have recently had to remove a few of our textile banks at Sainsbury's sites in Hampshire.  Sainsbury's have made the decision to work exclusively with Oxfam for textile recycling at their stores. We have only been allowed to keep our banks where we are charity of the year or have previously been charity of the year at the manager's discretion, so we still have a number of sites across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

With your help, we will continue to work towards being nominated again at the stores we have lost, new stores, and existing stores. Meanwhile, it may help our case if any of you would be happy to make a call to your local Sainsbury's stating that you are a supporter of HIOWAA and ask where the clothing bank has gone from the car park? 

The banks that have been removed are from:-

• Sainsburys Wallington Fareham

• Sainsburys Commercial Road Portsmouth

• Sainsburys Farlington

• Sainsburys Tadley Basingstoke

Thanks so much for your support.

Helen Walker. Bag It Up Ltd

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is launching a campaign this week in a bid to stop people calling 999 for non-life threatening reasons.  With the service receiving 1,235 hoax calls and many more inappropriate calls from January 2011 to October 2011, this is an increasing problem that is putting people’s lives at risk.  

In a concerted effort to address this issue, SCAS is headlining the campaign with a hard-hitting video shot in the style of a movie trailer, which showcases interviews with paramedics, real life emergencies and re-enactments of inappropriate calls and the impact they have.  The video is available to view on www.999southcentral.co.uk  as well as on YouTube.   

For further information on the campaign, please contact Gill Hodgetts, Head of Communications and Public Relations, SCAS (tel: 01869 365097, email: gillian.hodgetts@scas.nhs.uk).

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance want to say a huge thank you to Graham Warner at the Locksheath Centre and all the residents who use the shopping centre who have helped them raise a massive £16,000 through hosting two clothing recycling banks in the car park.

The Shopping Centre in the Warsash area has hosted the textile banks for over four years. Local residents have helped to ensure its success by regularly donating their unwanted clothing, shoes and textiles - Thank you very much.

Danielle Mugridge.  Bag It Ip Ltd

At a recent Christmas craft and gift fair held at Braishfield Social Club the idea hit me that it would nice to hold an event such as this to raise funds for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.    

I am looking for people to have a stall at the event, whether it is crafts, children’s activities (face painting etc), food, books, toys, gifts or anything similar we would like to hear from you.    I have managed to book the Braishfield Village Hall for Sunday 26th February 2012 from 11am to 3pm. There will be a fee of £10 for having a stall at the event and a request of 5% of sales taken on the day. All these monies will go directly to the charity. Access to the hall will be from 10am and the hall needs to be cleared by 4pm. I hope that you will consider taking part in this event, and I look forward to hearing from you in the very near future.  

If you would like a stall please contact us at enquiries@hiow-airambulance.org.uk or on 02380 33 33 77

Very kind regards. 

Wendy Jeffery,   Volunteer for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

If you had any doubts (just like me!) that I wouldn't complete the 'run' then you only have to look at the photograph,  no one would voluntarily dress up to look like that!

 It may have taken me 47 minutes to cover the three miles, but at least I eventually completed it. (At this point I would like to thank The Rolling Stones, as without their music pumping in my ears from an ancient MP3 player, I'd probably still be wobbling around Lasham Airfield).

Seriously though, I would like to say thank you so very much indeed to everyone who kindly sponsored me. Initially, I'd hoped to raise £100 for HIOWAA, and to now see the final total (including Gift Aid) at the marvellous figure of £500.00 is just incredible, a million thanks to you all. and best wishes for 2012. 

Many thanks also to Pam and Joyce, who very kindly came down to Lasham to run the HIOWAA merchandise stand on New Year’s Day, it really was appreciated.  Many, many, thanks and best wishes to everyone for 2012.

June

On behalf of all the staff and volunteers at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulabnce I should like to wish all our friends and supporters a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.  We all look forward to seeing you in 2012, when there will be a great many exciting events for HIOWAA.

John Perry.

It may be the festive season but it is always ‘the season’ to donate those unwanted bras!

Ysanne Legg from Alresford, one of our most avid bra collectors, has now collected the fantastic amount of 3000 bras.

Amoena, a specialist bra company based in Eastleigh - http://www.amoena.com/uk - who have already donated the marvellous amount of over 700 bras,  have recently donated another six large boxes of bras.

Hogg Robinson Worldwide continue to collect bras and have just added another 2 large bagful’s to their ever increasing total. 

Pampered Passions (USA) – are hopping to ship out their first batch of customer’s bras to the UK very shortly. http://www.pamperedpassions.com

Many, many thanks to all of the above, and to everyone else who has donated bras this year, it really is greatly appreciated.

BAG-A-BRA DAY 2012 will be on Thursday 24th May

Dick Whittington(June) and the cat (volunteer  Joyce Crawley) ran a ‘themed' HIOWAA  fundraising stand at the recent BVS Christmas Fair -along with a number of other charities - in The Malls, Basingstoke. As you can see Joyce was definitely not a ‘cat - astrophe’!  We would like to attend more Christmas Fairs in December 2012, so if you could kindly advise of any events in your area, that really would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

June

A busy day was had by four of our volunteers on 2nd December manning the Charity Card Shop in the 'eighteen17' Cafe located in the Guildhall Winchester. David, Jane, Joyce, Pam and Sarah did a sterling job of managing the queues which started at 9.30am and replenishing the shelves of christmas cards for over 40 Charities as part of an initiative led by Winchester Charity Cards and supported by the Mayor of Winchester; as we are his chosen charity of the year.

 The HIOWAA team achieved over £2200 worth of sales of card on the day, for all the charities taking part, with all HIOWAA stock selling out by early afternoon requiring June to make a mad dash with another delivery of cards for the Saturday rush.

 We will let you know in due course how much we raised for our charity over the weeks the card shop was open. But, don't forget to pop into the Card Shop which is open 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday when you are next in Winchester to stock up on our festive 'Red Robin' and 'Helicopter in the Snow' cards.

Sarah Rowlands

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is thrilled to announce that we have been successful in winning one of the three grants of over £6,000 from NatWest Bank,  in the NatWest Community Force 2011 vote.

Chief Executive of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, John Perry said. ‘This vital service benefits the entire community, and winning this award makes a considerable difference to the sums we must raise each month to keep the Air Ambulance flying and saving lives.    We are enormously grateful to all our supporters who voted for us, because without their support we would not have been in the top three charities to be given this award.   Our thanks go to NatWest for their generosity in creating this opportunity.’

Members of Hampshire Constabulary - Bishop Waltham Safer Neighbourhood team recently presented us with a fantastic cheque after walking 24 miles for us in the middle of July, in very hot weather to raise us over £ 650.00.

Sgt Susan Innes from Hampshire Constabulary said ‘ I came up with the idea as a team building exercise, it entailed walking from the Golden Lion Pub in Winchester, to the Golden Lion Pub in Southwick and then onto the Golden Lion Pub in Fareham, a distance of 24 miles with a couple of stops”.

A huge thank you to all who took part.

Roger

Byron Road in New Milton is aglow for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. Even bigger and better than in previous years, Byron Road is lit with festive lights from one end to the other.   Sunday evening saw the entire road filled with hundreds of people for the light switch on, performed by Katie Martin of BBC Radio Solent.

The road will be illuminated every evening now until Christmas with all donations going to HIOWAA.   Over the previous two years the annual event has raised over £ 3,000 for the charity.   A huge thank you to Jed and Sue Hollyoake, all of their helpers, their elves, Elvis (yes really!) and Father Christmas for all of their fantastic support.

Sunday the 27th November sees the annual Byron Road Christmas Lights switch on in aid of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. 

This year, as in previous years, thousands of people are expected to fill Byron Road in New Milton to see the whole of the road illuminated with Christmas lights. In the past two years this event has raised over £ 3,000 for us, so a huge thank you to Jed and Sue Hollyoake for their fantastic support.

Katie Martin from BBC Radio Solent will be there to switch on the lights at 6pm and Father Christmas has promised to be there too!   There will also be a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance stand full of the charity's Christmas Cards and Air Ambulance Christmas gift ideas.

I hope to see you there.

Roger

A long awaited event for Southampton General Hospital, and for HIOWAA, took place today.  The new Helipad, which has been built on the multi story car park, opened with the first landing by the HIOWAA aircraft.  There were many people there to see it, including members of the Hampshire media, and individuals from both SGH and the Help Appeal, who had been instrumental in bringing the helipad to fruition.

The crew of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance came in to land on the new helipad at exactly 10.00am on Thursday 17th Nov 2011, and were called out again almost immediately to a genuine mission, a transfer from the Isle of Wight.

This facility at SGH will prove to be an enormous advantage to the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, by cutting anything up to half an hour off their journey to hospital, as the transfer by land ambulance from the secondary landing site at Lordshill is no longer necessary.  This will have a dramatic impact on the outcomes for patients.  More information about the helipad can be found here.

Sherie

Vroni Bingham hosted a funday day last month for riders and horses, with the theme of Alice in Wonderland. This was the first year and after thirteen entrants and a fantastic event it is hoped that this will run again next year if we can persuade Vroni. The weather was ideal for the riders.

The riders took their horses around the fields taking part in challenges from timed to tricky reversing and angles. They even asked me and one of our new volunteers Di to judge!  We had great fun and good old JJ looked after the stand and tea.   Along with the IOW Mountain & Moorlands Pony Society presenting a cheque for £211.50 the event itself raised another £273.49. 

Another fantastic event having fun, whilst raising money for the Charity. We always do our best to make sure that we can attend and help you achieve this. So if you are thinking of holding an event from horse riding, sponsored, afternoon tea or many other great ideas please let us know, so we can help you help us.

Rosemarie

HIOWAA is lordshill store’s “Charity of the Year” and at the end of October we had a two day collection at the store.  The first day we brought along the aircraft pod, but unfortunately the weather was not that brilliant so we could not open it up. However, it was notice by a multitude of people and was warmly received by many others. 

On the second day we carried on collecting money, as well as promoting our recycling scheme as Lordshill have just had a textile bank placed in their car park. We were joined by Danielle from Bag It Up, and after giving loads and loads of our pink and green bags out, the staff of Sainsbury’s wheeled out their filled bags for the textile bin, they have collected over 50 bags of clothes and shoes – Fantastic! For the months of August and September we received over £30,000 to the charity from all the recycling banks in Hampshire & Isle of Wight. We had a great time at the store and would like to thank everyone for making us feel so wanted and welcome.

Rosemarie

Dear Supporters, 

I hope that you are well. I am pleased to advise you of some exciting news.  Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance have moved to a self-contained office at 4 Kings Park Road, Southampton, SO15 2AS.

We have had to move offices as our lease expires during November 2011 at St Mary’s Stadium.  We have not been able to agree satisfactory terms to stay at the Stadium so have no alternative but to move. The offices at St Mary’s have been a good home for the charity to date but we now need more space to accommodate our existing staff ( it was not possible for all our existing staff to work in the offices at St Mary’s at the same time) and also for the increasing number of our wonderful volunteers who assist in many different ways in the office.

We have been able to use the current economic climate to conclude a very satisfactory deal for 4 Kings Park Road (4KPR).The new offices have a number of benefits, which include more office space, a meeting room ( reducing the cost of room hire) adequate private parking and additional public parking nearby together with good storage facilities which have been a problem to date.  We believe that this location is an appropriate location for the next phase of the growth of our charity, we have a 10 year lease and hopefully our tenure can go far beyond. We have been very fortunate to receive generous donations of additional office furniture, pictures, telephones and other useful items, so the costs of the move overall have been the bare essentials. 

We have not advised you before the move,  as our phone numbers and emails remain the same, and are all working again after the usual battles with BT for 36 hours!. We are also receiving all the mail that is sent to St Mary’s Stadium so hopefully communications ongoing are unaffected. Please advise if you have any problems.

We hope that you will be able to visit us soon. We plan to have our usual Christmas ‘Open House’ (Wednesday 14th December – timings etc to follow) and we will be delighted to welcome you to the office so you can see for yourself.  Thank you very much for your ongoing support in so many different ways.

John

The Woolston and District Bowling Club have supported us magnificently over the past twelve months when we enjoyed being their President’s Charity of the Year.   After a year of events in aid of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, outgoing President Mr. Les Smith presented us with a cheque for £4,065.38!

This fantastic amount came from events held to raise funds for us, fines for misdemeanours whilst playing and in the clubhouse and through the generosity of the members.   A huge thank you from all of us at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

Roger

The honeymoon of Dominic and Rachael Clacy began in an unconventional way on the 1st October when they both set foot in Kilimanjaro National Park, and started their climb of Africa’s highest mountain. After witnessing the air ambulance responding to an incident in their village of Whitchurch in Hampshire, they had both decided that their ambition to climb a mountain could be used to raise awareness for the charity, and raise important funds in the process. To date the pair have raised in excess of £1000, above and beyond their £900 target originally specified.  For more about their amazing trip please click here.

June

Good luck to all the wonderful people who will be running in the Great South Run this weekend, to raise funds for HIOWAA.  Our Community Fundraiser, Rosemarie Norman will be there to welcome you all home, and we are hoping for good weather so that the event is a huge success.  Thanks from all the team at HIOWAA.

Sherie

It’s getting to that time of year again where we all start wondering what to get our loved ones for Christmas.  We have plenty of items that can be used as presents and stocking fillers in our online store, including our 2012 diaries which have come in today. These beautiful green and gold diaries will help keep you organised and meeting those all important dates. They also feature colour maps, forward planners and all kinds of other information you may need. A bargain at £3.50.     Why not also support your Air Ambulance by purchasing our Christmas Cards? We have three designs – our current aircraft in the snow, our original aircraft in the snow and a robin, all in packs of 10 with the greeting “With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year”.      All orders are dispatched to you within a few days, but we suggest that you order everything before 7^th December to ensure you get it all in time for Christmas

Kirsty

On the 26th and 27th of October the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance heli pod will be outside the Sainsbury's Lordshill  store along with collectors who will be taking unwanted clothing from customers.

The store Manager said “So far our Colleagues alone have brought in 38 bags of clothing, shoes and bras for recycling!  We are also going to be holding a 2nd hand book sale for Colleagues and a Halloween dress up day.  We are about to have 2 Collection bins put out in our car park for customers to also recycle any unwanted items.  ”

Some come along and help Sainsbury’s support your Air Ambulance.

Rosemarie

For the second year Natwest banking, are running “Community Force” .  NatWest Community Force is a new initiative which sees them working with local communities to support the people, projects and charities making a real difference where you live.   HIOWAA has been registered to be in the running for a £6000 donation, but we need your votes! There are 13 days left to vote so please act fast and vote for us by following this link. http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/1943 

At 7.30am on Saturday 10th September a small novice team of mountain climbers reached the summit of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. The team included Vicki Kyle-Lawrence who had set herself this goal a year ago when she decided to raise money for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance who had saved her life back in February 2009 after being kicked by a horse which ruptured her liver causing her to lose 4 pints of blood.

Although she had been training since the start of the year nothing could prepare her for the mental and physical extremes that climbing at altitude has on the body. Living in a tent with no running water or electricity for a week, trekking daily for up to 9 hours at a time through jungle, plains and volcanic moonscape needs strength and resilience. However the reward was to reach the summit as the sun rose over the cloud sea and the most fantastic view of the sun rising on the magnificent walls of the glacier which sits on the top of the crater.  'No photograph will ever capture the stunning scenery and views you get when you are standing on one of the world’s highest points. It took 7 ½ hours of climbing at night in minus 10 degrees centigrade to reach the summit but the feeling of achievement when you get to the crater edge in indescribable.'  said Vicki.  'People keeping asking me what next – I think just a good rest and some time to recover. But who knows what may be around the corner. Although it will be very hard to top this experience!'    

So far Vicki has managed to raise over £3000 to donate to the Air Ambulance but she still plans to reach her target of £6000 by the end of the year.    A concert, East Woodhay does West End, is being held on Sunday 30th October at The Clere School near Newbury by East Woodhay Silver Band in aid of the Air Ambulance as part of Vicki’s fundraising. Tickets are £10 each and will be available from local businesses in Woolton Hill, Burghclere and Kingsclere or by calling 07970297940.

Over 2 days 8 members of 22 Field Hospital undertook to paddle 4 fourteen foot open Canadian Canoes the length of the Basingstoke canal.  Self supported and carrying all equipment and rations required for the 2 day trip. 

Starting at the River Wey end of the Basingstoke Canal near to the M25 Motorway at 0700hrs on Monday 10th October,  we were happy that the weather was warm and sunny as we set of for day one of the 50km paddle.

The trip would require us to negotiate 29 locks on the canal and for speed and safety it was decided that these would be portaged carrying all equipment and boats.  Unfortunately 28 of these locks are in the fist half of the canal so day one involved a lot of lifting and carrying. This was made even more challenging by the fact that when we arrived at lock 15 there was no water on the other side!

Read more about our challenge here

Our T Shirts are kindly sponsored by Brilens

Andy Game

A wonderful night was had by all on 11th October  2011 when members of Woolston & District Bowling Club organised a Fundraising Fashion Show, hosted by Travelling Trends from Ringwood. The Club House in Temple Road Southampton was packed out, with queues forming at the entrance well before the evening started. A 120 people attended the event which showcased over 80 high street and designer items on the catwalk. 

 With members strutting their stuff down the walk way applauded by the audience, a scrum then ensued with shopaholics rifling through through more than 20 rails heaving with clothes from Jasper Conran, Viyella, Peppermint, Wallis, to name but a few, which could be purchased at 30 - 60% less than RRP, with commission earned on the sales going to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.   People were treated to free wine and nibbles provided by the Club, during which raffle tickets were also sold in aid of the charity, with generous prizes donated by Kutz 'n' Beauty Netley Abbey, Les Smith Butchers and other bowling club members.

 It was a fun, girlie night with much laughter [and spending of money] due to an amazing amount of effort being put into the event. Many thanks to all the team at the Bowling Club for making it such a successful fundraising event  for the Air Ambulance.   

Sarah Rowlands

A quick follow up on the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance attending the Hursley Multi Terrain 10k on Sunday 25th September.   Basically it was fantastic, to see the kids, and many adults, watching open mouthed as the heli came in, it was brilliant. Having you guys involved this year gave us another dimension to the event which we have very much appreciated and we will be making a donation towards the charities good work.

We are really lucky in Hampshire to have such an asset as the Air Ambulance and hope we can look to see your team again next year.   Thanks again.  

Regards   H

Ps: You might recognise Pilot Dave busting a gut trying to beat a female runner just in front of him.  To be fair the woman is Sue Sleath the winner of the ladies race and bit of a legend in the running world.  Dave did come 45th in a good time of 00:44:29