Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s Airbase Challenge reaches milestone

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC) has had a successful start to its Air30 Airbase Challenge with participants clocking up more than 12,000 miles of walking, running and cycling.

The local, lifesaving charity has seen its latest fundraising initiative take off with individuals and teams already signed up having pledged to cover more than 12,000 miles by challenging themselves physically. That’s the same distance which would be covered by travelling from the UK to Antarctica.

This has spurred the charity on and it now wants you to get involved and push that total to 15,000 miles by the time the challenge finishes on 31 May 2021 –ten days after the charity’s 30th anniversary.

As well as being a physical challenge, which has drawn the attention of the charity’s former patients, volunteers and supporters, this activity helps to address the challenge of raising vital funds for the lifesaving service which attends an average of 13 missions each day. So far, in excess of £36,000 has been raised funding a total of 40 missions – 12 air ambulance and 28 in the charity’s two critical care cars which attend patients suffering from medical issues like strokes, cardiac arrests, heart attacks and convulsions.

Emma Gray, fundraising and marketing director for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “It’s been really exciting to see this fundraising initiative grow. We would like to thank everyone who has got involved already for their support in completing the challenge and raising vitally important funds for our rapid response, pre-hospital emergency service.

“However, reaching a record of 15,000 miles would give us a really great boost during 2021 and our ‘Air30’ anniversary year. With the nights getting lighter, warmer weather on the way, and some restrictions set to be lifted in the coming weeks, we hope more and more people will be encouraged to help us make future missions possible.”

For more information on Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s Airbase Challenge, visit midlandsairambulance.com/air30-airbase-challenge and follow the organisation on social media.