Fundraising with a touch of Spice

At Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance we are always delighted to receive approaches from the public with fund raising ideas so when we received a call from a gentleman with an idea to motor cycle around the coast of Britain for us we were intrigued.  Even more so when the gentleman explained that he was considering undertaking it on a 500 cc 1968 Triumph Tiger Motor Bike.

This intrepid biker is 68 year old Mr. Les Spicer from Milford on Sea in Hampshire who hopes to complete the 3,200 mile journey in 21 days, with the start and finish at the home of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance at Thruxton Airfield, near Andover.  Les’s route is expected to take him from Andover to the South Coast and then eastwards in an anti-clockwise direction around the coastline, calling in on other Air Ambulance bases in the country as he progresses.

Les is no stranger to charitable deeds.  In 2008 he undertook a charity bungee jump from a dam wall in Switzerland. The grandfather-of-two imitated the opening scene of the  1995's James Bond ‘GoldenEye’ movie when, attached to a bungee cord, he plummeted to the base of the 220 metre-high dam at a speed of 100mph, then sprang back up again.

Les’s Round Britain Quest is due to start on the 20th September with his return to Thruxton around the 11th October

Masons Grand Charity Supporting the Air Ambulance

The Masonic Lodges are great supporters of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, and this year they have again received a fabulous £4,000 from the Masons Grand Charity, to help with their life saving work.  Eric Moody and Brian Bellinger of the Masons Grand Charity made a presentation of this donation recently at the HIOWAA Airbase, at Thruxton.

Chairman of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Barry Lipscomb, said ‘ We are enormously grateful for the unwavering support we receive from the Masonic Lodges, and especially from the Mason’s Grand Charity.  We rely heavily on this type of support from community groups, as well as individuals, as we received no government or national lottery funding.’

Mayor Helps to Keep the Air Ambulance Flying

During his year as Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Cllr Brian Gurden chose three charities to benefit from his Mayor’s Appeal.  Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was lucky enough to be one of the three, and recently Cllr  Gurden made a presentation at Thruxton, of £19,302.00.  This was raised through a variety of fundraising events throughout the region.

Chief Executive of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, John Perry, said ‘ We are thrilled and amazed at this enormously generous donation to our work.  Cllr and Mrs Gurden have visited the Airbase at Thruxton from where we fly the Air Ambulance, and they appreciated the vital work we do, so these funds will be put to very good use in helping to keep the helicopter flying and saving lives.  We would like to thank all those people who have been involved in the Mayor’s Appeal and who have worked so hard, and I should like to thank Cllr and Mrs Gurden especially for choosing Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.’

Local charities are set to benefit from a huge haul of unwanted textiles, kitchenware and small electrical items thanks to green-minded students and Solent University’s own enviro champ – Ernie, the Eco Float.  Now even keener and greener - and fresh from scooping a top government award - Ernie and a team of volunteers have spent the last fortnight collecting unwanted items from students as they get set to move out of their rented accommodation.

The University’s innovative project –supported by Solent’s Students’ Union, Southampton City Council and Bag it up (Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance) – was launched last year to help combat the mounds of waste left behind by students moving out of their rented accommodation in the heavily student-populated Polygon area.  Eco Ernie – who helped Southampton City Council win the Local Government Chronicle Award for Community Involvement earlier this year – looks set to more than double last year’s phenomenal one tonne textile total for Bag It Up.

Solent University’s Community Liaison Officer, Melissa Reddington-Cartmell said: “It’s great to be out on the streets with our Ernie again, and this years’ response has been even better than last years’.”  Everyone benefits from this innovative scheme. The streets are cleaner, charities get much needed donations and the environment benefits from the reduction of landfill waste.”

As well as textiles, Ernie has collected more than 40 working televisions, and other small electrical items including microwaves, kettles, heaters, and toasters.  Some of the more weird and wonderful finds include a treadmill, dolls house, pair of binoculars, a dry suit and Mr Potato Head - with both eyes intact!

The electrical items will be PAT tested before being given to local charities or sold on to new students moving in to the area.  All proceeds from the sale will be used to fund further community projects.  Local residents, University staff, students, council workers, and clergy will be sorting through the recyclables at Devonshire Central Baptist Church, on Thursday 1 July before it goes to charity. 

Bag It Up’s Danielle Mugridge says: "This project is a fantastic way of involving students in the local community and helping raise funds for the life saving work of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. Combined with this, the project addresses the importance of recycling and the diversion of tons of waste from the waste stream and landfill. We are very proud to be part of this innovative scheme."

Headley Park Hotel near Bordon played host recently to the annual 3B’s Motorcycle Club Rally.  This popular event, held in soaring temperatures, was attended by over 1,000 bikers and families from all over the south of England.  During the year, this dedicated biking community raises funds for charity at their various events, and once again, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has been lucky enough to be the recipient.

John Perry, CEO of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was treated to a a customised motor bike ride and toured the show meeting with bikers from all over the South of England before being presented with a cheque for £ 4,500.00 from the committee of the 3B’s  Motorcycle club.

John Perry said ‘We are extremely grateful to the committee of the 3B’s Motorcycle Club for their outstanding generosity to us. I should also like to thank the mass gathering of bikers for their kindness and generosity over the past year and wished them success for the coming year. They really are very dedicated supporters of the Air Ambulance’

Generous Donors Feeling Misled

Generous donors across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are donating clothing and other textiles to doorstep clothing collections, in the mistaken belief that their donations are going to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  A company called ‘Air Ambulance Service’ has been putting their leaflets through letter boxes across the county, showing a photo of a yellow Air Ambulance, similar to those flown by local Air Ambulance charities.  This is leading people to think they are donating their unwanted textiles to their own Air Ambulance when in fact this is a commercial company, and is in no way connected to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

John Perry, CEO of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said ‘we have received many complaints, both by phone and in writing, about these leaflets.  People are enormously generous, and when they realise they are giving their textiles to a commercial company for their own profit, rather than to the charity, they are very cross, and feel misled.  We have had many reports of these leaflets being distributed, and we would like to alert the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, to make sure that donations intended for your Air Ambulance are not accidentally given to a profit making company.  I want to advise people that Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance do not send leaflets through letter boxes.  All our textile recycling is done through our partner Bag It Up, who have over 300 yellow recycling banks around the county.  Their website www.bagitup.org.uk has a postcode locator which will tell you where your nearest recycling bank is, or if you have a very large amount of textiles, we can arrange for them to be collected.  For more details about these leaflets, please see our website www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk 

Walking on Water for the Air Ambulance

Sunday 23rd May dawned hot and sunny, without a cloud in the sky.  Perfect weather for those intrepid supporters who ‘Walked on Water’ to raise funds for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  This was certainly a most unusual fundraising event, which involved teams of three or four people from all different parts of the county, walking on treadmills aboard the St Clare ferry, by kind permission of Wightlink.  Each team walked for one return journey between Portsmouth and Fishbourne, on the Isle of Wight, and they were sponsored for the number of miles they walked on water.  The grand total of the fundraising will be known by the end of July.  

John Perry, CEO of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said ‘This is such an innovative idea for a fundraising event, dreamed up by Rosemarie Norman, our Community Fundraiser for the Island.  Everyone who took part thoroughly enjoyed the day, and we are very grateful to them all for spending the time and energy to Walk on Water for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  I should also like to thank, The County Press and the Isle of Wight Council for their support, John Lewis for the loan of the treadmills, and many other people whose sponsorship and hard work made the day such a success’

Bag Up Your Bras for the Air Ambulance

Thursday 27th May is Bag A Bra Day.  This is perhaps one of the most unusual charity fundraising ideas so far.  Do you have bras which you no longer need?  Rather than throw them away, why not donate them to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  You might wonder why they would want them, and here is why.  Like most textiles, bras can be recycled to raise much needed funds for the charity.  But better than that, they are worth a great deal more than ordinary textiles, and once they have been sorted and distributed, they are sold on to women in West Africa who can seldom afford new bras.  This is not only good for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, but also allows local West African women the opportunity to buy and wear bras which can help them in many ways, including increasing their self esteem.  Many companies, groups and individuals around the county are involved in Bag a Bra Day and donations are coming in from as far away as Wales, and New Zealand!

John Perry, CEO of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said ‘This is a fantastic initiative which is so worthwhile, and has advantages for us all.  Our recycling partners Bag It Up, have arranged for these bras to be sent out to Africa, and we are very pleased to be able to do something for others, whilst raising funds to help keep your Air Ambulance flying.  Please help by bagging up all your unwanted bras and placing them in one of our yellow recycling banks, and we can give you the location of your nearest bank. Don’t worry if you can’t do this now, as we will continue to collect bras throughout the year’

HELICOPTER TAKES OFF WITH SOUTHERN WATER CASH

A life-saving service is taking to the skies with help from Southern Water.Every year the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance helicopter flies hundreds of missions in response to 999 calls.

The service, and its contemporaries in Sussex and Kent, was chosen by Southern Water staff as beneficiaries of a scheme to help promote health and safety at the water company.For  every hazard and near-miss reported by Southern Water staff and suppliers, £2 was donated by the company to the charity fund.

The target for 2009/10 was for 5,000 hazards and near-misses to be reported but eagle-eyed employees managed to report almost twice as many – 9,573 in total. The pay-out figure is capped at 6,000 incidents and this year raised £12,000 which was split equally between the region’s three Air Ambulance Trusts.

Since the scheme was first launched in October 2006, a total of 22,109 hazards and near-misses have been reported. John Corden, Head of Health and Safety at Southern Water, said: “The reporting line is part of our continuing Aim for Zero Injuries campaign and is something everyone can get involved in.

“Spotting and reporting hazards and near-misses is clearly a far more positive activity than counting and investigating accidents once they have happened. “Most of us and our families travel widely around the region and, while we all hope never to use them, it is particularly appropriate that the three air ambulances are our nominated charities.”

Capable of flying up to 150 miles an hour, the air ambulance is able to get a medical crew to the scene of an accident or emergency much faster than a land ambulance and can transport patients to the nearest major hospital or specialist unit quickly too.

Based at Thruxton Airfield near Andover, the service first took to the skies in July 2007 and is a registered charity which is funded entirely by donations. For more information visit www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk.

Southampton Soroptimists Support the Air Ambulance

On a sunny Sunday morning recently five representatives from Southampton and District Soroptimists presented a cheque for £3303.46 to Chairman Barry Lipscomb of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance at its home base of Thruxton Airfield.

Barry Lipscomb said ‘this is a fantastic amount, for which we are extremely grateful.  The service provided by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is made possible through the generosity of individuals and groups such as the Soroptimists, throughout Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.’

Half of this donation had been raised from a collection at the Itchen Bridge toll booths just before Christmas 2009.  All club members took part in the fundraising, with some husbands dressing up as Santa, Rudolph and other festive figures to encourage Christmas shoppers to part with their change for a cause that benefits all Hampshire residents.  The club members would like to thank the public for their generous donations at the bridge.

Weybrook Park Golf Club Hit a Hole in One for the Air Ambulance

The members of Basingstoke’s Weybrook Golf Club have been involved in a year’s worth of fundraising ideas which have resulted in them donating a fantastic £9,400 to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  Spokesman Sue Bowen said ‘ We have raised this in a number of ways, including having the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance as our Charity of the Year, Captains days for each Captain,  and some very well fed collection pots!’

Chairman of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Barry Lipscomb received the cheque from Ladies Captain Sue Bowen and said ‘I came here expecting to be given £8,000 – itself a magnificent sum – and was staggered to find that Weybrook Park members had actually raised the fantastic sum of £9,400.   That is a truly remarkable achievement and will greatly help us in providing our emergency service to the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.   Our helicopter, call sign Helimed 56, regularly overflies the golf course and is well known to club members.”

28th April 2010

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Announces its New Helicopter

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has been flying and saving lives for just under three years. In that time it has made huge strides to provide the very best service possible to the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.  The Trustees are delighted to announce that, from September this year, the crew will be flying their new helicopter.  This is a fantastic achievement for the charity in such a short length of time and shows the dedication and determination of the whole team - air crew, medical personnel, charity staff, trustees and, of course, the wonderful volunteers - to ensure that this vital life saving service continues to grow and prosper for the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Chairman of Trustees, Cllr Barry Lipscomb, said ‘Less than 3 years since we commenced flying, 2190 missions on, this is a major milestone in the development of the charity.   Trustees are delighted to be able to upgrade now from our ageing but stalwart Bolkow 105 to a modern EC135 helicopter, which will greatly increase our operational capacity and the service which we can offer to the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.   Their wonderful generosity and support keeps us flying 7 days a week, 365 days a year and they deserve the best.’

John Perry, Chief Executive of HIOWAA said ‘It is only through the generosity of the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, through personal donations, fundraising events, clubs, churches, schools and many more groups, that the charity is able to provide this service.  HIOWAA receives no government or national lottery funding, and only receives support through the secondment of paramedics from the NHS, so we must ensure that our fundraising programme continues to grow.   I encourage anyone who would like to be involved in this fantastic community service - by raising funds, becoming a volunteer or in many other ways - to get in touch with our Head Office.  This is an exciting time for the charity so why not come and be part of HIOWAA?’  For further details please see our website www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk.

The details of the official launch of the upgraded Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance helicopter will be released at a later date.

Scouts Help to Keep the Air Ambulance Flying. 10th Romsey Scouts

It is every young boy’s dream to see a helicopter up close, and especially the Air Ambulance. This dream came true for some young members of the 10th Romsey Scouts, when they visited the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance recently.

It is every young boy’s dream to see a helicopter up close, and especially the Air Ambulance. This dream came true for some young members of the 10th Romsey Scouts, when they visited the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance recently.

The Scout group raised a magnificent sum of money from their Scouts Open Day held last September, which included many scouting activities, including having their leaders placed in the stocks!

Although the weather was not kind during their visit to the Thruxton Airbase, the group were able to meet Pilot Dave Bronniman and Helicopter Paramedic Mike Gregory who showed the scouts around the aircraft and told them how the Air Ambulance operates. The Group presented a cheque to Roger Leppard, Community Fundraiser, for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Southern Region.

John Perry, CEO of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said ‘this is a tremendous effort from a group of hard working young people who are keen to be involved in their local community. We are very grateful to the 10th Romsey Scouts for their support’

Megan Thanks the Life Savers of the Air Ambulance

Little Megan Harrison was very unlucky recently to have been involved in a nasty sledging accident, causing breaks to all three major bones in her left leg. She and her family were therefore very grateful indeed to see the crew of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance arrive to rescue her and take her swiftly to hospital for treatment.

Megan and her parents, Geoff and Sarah, all wanted to thank the crew who came to Megan’s aid, and were pleased to be able to visit the Air Base at Thruxton, near Andover, recently, to thank them in person. Megan and her parents were shown around the Airbase and the Air Ambulance, and Megan was able to have a good look around inside the helicopter, as this time she wasn’t the patient being treated.

John Perry, Chief Executive of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance said ‘we are extremely glad that Megan is making such a good recovery after her accident, and I know that all the crew are pleased to see her well again so quickly. It is always nice when patients and families who have been helped by the Air Ambulance are able to personally thank the crew for their kindness and expertise.’