Archives: Community TYs

A huge thank you to Mandate Systems who recently donated £150 to the YAA. Mandate Systems are a family run business who specialise in Pressure Systems testing and test the fuel pumps at both our Nostell and Topcliffe Airbases. Thank you so much for your generous support.

Chris Roper and Simon McEvoy completed the coast to coast challenge and raised an incredible £1,334 for the YAA!

The way of the roses challenge was completed in memory of Mick Cottam who sadly passed away following a motorbike incident 10 years ago. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance was Mick’s favourite charity and since his passing, Mick’s partner Tracy as well as family and friends have continued to raise funds to keep the helicopters flying and providing a lifesaving service for other motorcyclists and the wonderful people of Yorkshire.

Vickie Bowden, West Yorkshire Regional Fundraiser said: “Well done to Chris and Simon for completing the coast to coast challenge and raising an impressive £1,334 for the YAA. The money raised will help greatly towards the vital funding of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and we are grateful for all the support we recieve.”

Yorkshire Air Ambulance were due to be the main beneficiary of the Wensleydale Wander organised by the Wensleydale Rotary Club this Summer but due to Covid19, the event was cancelled.  That didn’t stop them still raising £1,000 from a Lockdown Limericks competition, asking for donations on their Zoom Charter Night celebrations and making and selling face masks.  A huge thank you to the outgoing President, Susan Rogers for coming up with such ingenious ideas.

Tessa Klemz, North Yorkshire Community Fundraiser, said: “We would like to thank Susan and the Club for all their generous support during this difficult period when fundraising has been badly hit.  The £1,000 raised will enable the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to continue saving lives across rural Wensleydale.”

A huge thank you to Sophie Riggs who raised £2,595 for the YAA.

Sophie was planning on hosting a Summer Ball and Raffle at the Yorkshire Barn Gilling West, but due to the pandemic it was cancelled. Sophie continued to raffle the prizes she had donated and the people who had paid for their tickets generously said they would like to donate the money to the YAA raising the fantastic amount of £2,595.

Lin Stead, North Yorkshire Regional Fundraiser, said: “We would like to thank Sophie for her support and generosity and for her innovative way of fundraising during this difficult period.

The £2,595  raised will help tremendously towards the vital funding of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and will enable us to continue saving lives across the region.”

A huge thank you to the Haribo team for sending some sweet treats for our crew and staff.

A huge thank you to Emily, aged 7 who has raised an impressive £950 from a 150k walking and cycling challenge during lockdown. Thank you for your support Emily and well done!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Shaun Weatherhead, who has raised a fantastic £2840 from his UMan Covid-19 Mission. UMan brought joy to local streets. Helping to improve children/families spirits and wellbeing during lock down by visiting local communities. All visits complied with the government guidelines – adhering to social distancing.

A huge thank you to The Vegilantes who have kindly donated a big supply of their new luxury plant-based burgers to our crews to enjoy whilst they’re on shift.  The Vegilantes have just launched a new luxury range of plant-based meals & products in Morrison stores nationwide.  We’re told by the crew that they are very nice indeed!

Alistair and Victoria Grenfell have raised £24,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance after the Yorkshire Air Ambulance saved their then five year old daughter’s life when she was critically ill two years ago.

On the 24^th January 2018, Beatrice Grenfell, aged five, from Whitby, was sent home from school due to feeling unwell.

“She was a little bit hot, but didn’t seem that poorly”, said Beatrice’s mother Vicky. “She asked to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and she seemed okay.” Vicky briefly left the room and when she returned, she found Bea unconscious.

“When I came back into the room Bea had been sick and wet herself and she was staring blankly into space and was completely unresponsive. She then went into a prolonged seizure and began to turn blue”, said Vicky.

Vicky called 999 and the land ambulance arrived to assess Bea, followed shortly by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. It was then decided that Bea would be flown to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesborough, a journey which would take an hour by road, but took only thirteen minutes by air.

Bea was seen on the major trauma ward where she was put into an induced coma, then transferred into paediatric intensive care where she spent three days, whilst doctors worked on discovering what was wrong. A series of tests revealed that she had contracted Influenza B and RSV, both life threatening conditions in such a young child.

Luckily Bea made a full recovery, but in March, she received results from of her MRI scan and it revealed that Bea was showing signs of Neurofibromatosis type 1, which was one of many conditions doctors had been testing her. Further tests then went on to confirm she does have the condition.

Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that causes tumours to develop on parts on your nervous system such as your brain, spinal cords and nerves and can lead to other chronic health conditions. It is often diagnosed in childhood and affects 1 in 3000 children.

Last year Victoria and Alistair organised a 12 hour  Dance-a-thon in Whitby which was a huge success and this year, Alistair also took part in the Yorkshire Marathon.

Victoria said: “We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have just hit the £24,000 mark raised for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, the fantastic charity which was part of an incredible team of people who saved our then five-year-old daughter’s life when she was critically ill just over two years ago.

We are eternally grateful to this fabulous charity and we also want to say a massive THANK YOU to all of our wonderful family and friends from all over the world, as well as the amazing people of Whitby, who have so kindly donated funds and raffle prizes, given their time to help plan for, orchestrate and attend events and given their support in so many ways to keep this total rising.”

Kevin Hutchinson, East Community Fundraiser for the YAA said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to Vicky and Alistair for their generosity and support and everyone who helped make their events a success.

It costs £12,000 a day to keep both of Yorkshire’s Air Ambulances maintained and in the air and the money raised will help tremedously towards the vital funding of our service.”

Boroughbridge Football Club recently lost one of its family members following the sudden death of Tony Allen, who died from a heart attack despite the best efforts of Yorkshire Air Ambulance and hospital staff.

Tony, better known  as TA, was born in Stockton -on-Tees and spent his early working life in the Royal Air Force, moving to North Yorkshire in the early eighties where he was employed in the logistics department at Linton-on Ouse as a civilian. Have bike will travel was how he introduced himself to the club and his first night at training was enough to tell us that what he lacked in pace was compensated by an abundance of technical skill and flair.

The early eighties and the two decades following, was one of the most successful periods in the Club’s history and TA was an integral part of that era, enjoying a myriad of success in the Harrogate, Claro and York Leagues, and York & Harrogate District FA’s.  Suddenly this little known club from out in the sticks began to etch a name for itself  which was enhanced further by their exploits in the West Riding County Challenge Cup and Northern Counties Senior Cup Competition. TA hung up his playing boots in 2001 to take on the role of Assistant Manager alongside Daz Ekin and in their inaugural year in the West Yorkshire League they guided the team to the Division One Championship and Divisional Cup. TA’s enthusiasm for the sport and the development of younger players brought him back into the game and he spent a few seasons playing with the A team and following his son Carl.

Even when his interest in the playing side waned he would still be seen on the touchline expressing his views and never afraid to tell it as he saw. The Charity fixture was a spontaneous gesture to TA and once mooted it went ahead within seven days with players from past and present, young and old participating.  A tribute to a great guy who will be missed by us all and the £400.00 raised donated to Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

When the idea of walking over 1000 kms, carrying all food, gear and water was first put to me over 3 years ago in the summer of 2016 I never really gave it too much thought.  I told my mate, based in Perth, Australia, I was interested, warned my fiancée and our three children, started saving up and got on with life, not giving it a second thought.

Twelve months later I thought it’d be best to talk with my employer (Royal Berkshire FRS) to ask them about taking time off, seeing as the trip would take in the region of 6-8 weeks!  They agreed and I carried on forgetting about it for another 18 months.

Fast forward to the end of 2018, and finding myself employed by a different fire service (West Yorkshire FRS), following a transfer, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be flying to Australia in September 2019 to embark on a long distance trek – best get my life in order and start preparing for it, I thought.

Luckily for me, my new employer’s, following a few meetings, emails and logistical tweaks also welcomed the idea.  I had decided to raise awareness and funds for The Fire Fighters Charity and Yorkshire Air Ambulance during the build up to the trek, as it seemed pointless flying over 9000 miles and walking over 600 miles for no good cause.

I was about 6 months from my departure date when I started thinking about training specifically for the trek and due to my shift at work the majority of my training was carried out, mind-numbingly, on the treadmill at Rawdon fire station.

After a few months of training, researching, purchasing, begging and borrowing I found myself waving goodbye to the family at Manchester airport during a cool morning on 21^st September.  Less than 24 hours later I was going to be meeting up with an ex-army mate who I’d not seen since 1990!  Damien was supposed to be joining me on the trek, along with a couple of others from ‘back in the day’, but due to him accepting a new job (where the amount of time off wasn’t possible) and the others not taking the initial idea as seriously as me, I had decided to ‘go it alone’.

The Bibbulmun Track (www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au) stretches just over 1000 km between Kalamunda in the Eastern Perth hills to Albany on the south coast of Western Australia.  During this time of year, Spring, it was advised to attempt the trek in a southerly direction in order to escape the approaching heat from the Equator.  I, being a stubborn fool, decided to do the opposite.  The Track spans a diverse landscape encompassing sandy beaches, coastal headlands, dense forest trails, open flat plains, rocky hilly tracks and inlet crossings and was home to an abundance of flora and fauna with hundreds of spring flowers, various species of majestic trees, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, monitor lizards, snakes, porcupines, quokkas and countless birds amongst its numbers.

Along its length there are nine track towns (where I posted food parcels to, to collect en route) and  ‘camps’ consisting of a wooden, open fronted hut (used as a sleeping shelter), a long drop toilet (dunny), rainwater butts and camping pitches.  It was designed to be completed in 8 weeks, with a hut available at the end of each days walk.  However, due to my limited time I had a maximum of 45 days to complete the trek before I headed back home on 9^th November.  This, of course, meant I had to ‘double and triple hut’ on numerous days so I could fit the whole distance in.  On average I would be walking 24 km daily and carrying anything from 20 to 27 kg on my back.

I started the Track on 25^th September, spending the first 10 days pounding the dry, deep sandy coastal headlands with way too much weight in my pack.  The shock my body endured through walking continuously over tough terrain was noticeable with my feet, shoulders and back all suffering from the relentless physical activity.  Luckily for me the weather was still relatively mild at an average of 22 Celsius.  Even though I was finding each day hard work, as long as I ate my hot freeze-dried meal and slept for 6 hours I was raring to go the following day.  Those initial days I would wake in the night with aching legs, unable to get comfortable, tossing and turning until the sun came up.

Even though I never doubted I’d complete the trek I realised that if I didn’t lose some weight out of my pack my shoulders would probably knot up and deteriorate sufficiently to slow me down considerably.  Once I reached Northcliffe, the fourth track town, and one with a post office, I gathered some non-essential items and packed a 3 kg parcel back to Perth.  When I reached the track towns I craved sugar, sugar and more sugar.  As soon as I sensed the convenience store I would race there and down a Mars bar, ice cold can of coke and an ice cream before thinking of anything else.  Living off freeze dried meals, trail mix, tuna and porridge was getting me by, but only just.

Leaving the coast and acclimatising well, to both the weather and the job in hand, I soon got into my stride and with the reduced weight I was beginning to enjoy the challenge.  Due to me walking the track in the ‘wrong’ direction I found I’d never walk with fellow hikers and could go a few days at a time without seeing a single person.  The solitude was wonderful and something which I enjoyed the most, wishing there was no one in the huts at the end of my days became something I found myself doing more and more as I progressed.  However, equally, it was great chatting and getting to know the fellow walkers whom I did share huts with.

I found the middle part of the trek quite tough, mentally, due to the similar landscape throughout.  It was quite claustrophobic and every now and then I momentarily got annoyed by the smallest things, like tripping up, missing a turning, repetitive birdsong, etc.  I’d soon snap out of it after having a word with myself.  Crazy really when you think how relaxing the environment was compared to the hustle and bustle of family and work life.  I was missing the coast and starting to resent the forest trails I walked along.  The physical and mental challenge I was experiencing was obviously having a powerful affect on me, more than I realised.

When I started the Track, the thought of over 40 days continuous walking made me feel a little unnerved, but having got into a rhythm and having met and camped with so many interesting people it was a shock when I found myself having only a few days left to walk.  Where had the time gone?

The last few days were very difficult as I found myself in a very hilly and rocky landscape.  This, together with the increased temperature (into the 30’s on some days), made the final push tough going and the sight of the finish, along with a small welcome party, was most welcome indeed.  I’d lost 8kg on the Track and it was now time to put that weight back on, eating everything and anything in my path!

Damien had contacted the local Kalamunda fire fighters and explained my challenge.  They came along in their engine to greet me and subsequently fed and watered me at their station following some obligatory photographs.  A fish finger sandwich and meat pie has never tasted so good!

I completed the non-stop challenge in 42 days and have managed to raise over £4400 for the two charities.

Laura Lawton, West Yorkshire Community Fundraiser for the YAA, said: “We would like to say a huge well done to Adrian for completing one of the worlds longest treks and a huge thank you for supporting the YAA and raising such an incredible amount of money.

It costs £12,000 a day to keep both of Yorkshire’s air ambulances maintained and in the air and the money raised will help tremedously towards the vital running of our service.”