Egging on the Tour de France has helped one company give a major funding boost to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Two years ago James Potter Yorkshire Free Range Eggs hatched a plan to donate 1p for every dozen eggs sold to the emergency response charity.
Since then Yorkshire’s number one selling brand of free range eggs has donated over £24,000 to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
In honor of the Tour de France’s arrival in Yorkshire the company produced a limited edition six-egg pack, and agreed to donate 5p per sale to the YAA – leading to an ‘eggtra’ large donation of nearly £2,760.
Adrian Potter, Director at James Potter Eggs, said: “The pack was the biggest selling product during July. The Tour de France was brilliant for the county and for us and we were delighted to be able to give more to the region’s air ambulance service which does such a fantastic job all year round.”
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance had the busiest weekend in its 14-year history when the Tour de France passed through Yorkshire last month attending 31 incidents between Friday, July 4 and Sunday, July 6.
The emergency response charity needs to raise £9,990 a day to keep its two helicopters in the air – equivalent to £3.6 million each year.
Without any direct government funding, the only help the YAA receives is through the secondment of its paramedics from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Tony Doveston, Fundraising Manager (North) for the YAA said: “The Potter family are fantastic supporters of the charity. The donation of a penny per dozen eggs sold has created a hugely valuable regular income stream for the charity of on average £900 a month.
“The special Tour de France pack generated more than £2,000 extra for us during July and we cannot thank this brilliant family and company enough.”
James Potter Yorkshire Eggs is a family-run business based at Catton, near Thirsk – just a few fields away from the YAA’s base at RAF Topcliffe – and has been producing free-range eggs for more than 30 years.
The company’s “hen-centric” approach means all 200,000 of its hens are free to roam outside in woodlands and on fresh pasture.
Supplying Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury’s, the company has seen the volume of the eggs it handles increase by 250 per cent in the last five years, having recently invested in some of the most modern production and packing facilities in the country.