Travelworld Raises £5k for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity

Employees at a luxury motorhome dealership in Stafford walked hundreds of miles, donned wacky outfits and sold jacket potatoes to raise more than £5,000 for the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.

The staff at Erwin Hymer Centre Travelworld took part in a year of fundraising to support the life-saving work of the charity.

Four members of the team took part in the Airbase Challenge, walking 121 miles over 30 days. That is the distance between Midlands Air Ambulance’s three airbases in Tatenhill, RAF Cosford and Strensham as the helicopter flies.

Travelworld presented the charity with a cheque for £5,614.76 this week.

Hazel Winfield, Accounts Administrator at Travelworld, said: “We asked our staff who they’d like to support over the course of 12 months and Midlands Air Ambulance Charity came out on top.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have raised such a significant amount which will help the charity with its crucial work across the region, where we had great support for our fundraisers over the year.

“The Airbase Challenge was great fun to be involved in and really gave those involved something to strive towards.

Travelworld encouraged staff to bring in bags of unwanted clothes which were donated to Midlands Air Ambulance Charity shops, raising around £1,500 when re-sold.

Jacket potatoes were also baked on site and sold to customers, while dress-up days for Christmas and Halloween helped to boost the fundraising total further.

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity operates and funds three air ambulances covering six Midlands counties including Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands.

Each year it costs between £11-12 million to maintain the three aircrafts and the provision of its advanced pre-hospital emergency service. Each air ambulance mission costs an average of £2,950.

Since 1991, the charity has responded to more than 70,000 missions, making it one of the busiest air ambulance services in the UK.

Jon Cottrell, senior partnership executive at Midlands Air Ambulance Charity said: “A huge thank you to everyone at Travelworld who took part in a fundraising challenge, baked potatoes or donated pre-loved items to our charity shops.

“Our vital pre-hospital emergency service relies solely on the support of local people and businesses to fund future missions. Travelworld’s fundraising total has helped fund 10 lifesaving missions carried out by our air ambulances and critical care cars. Thanks again to all involved for helping make these missions possible.”

Travelworld, off junction 14 of the M6, has the largest array of premium German brand motorhomes in the UK market and is perfectly placed to meet the current unprecedented demand for Carado, Dethleffs, HYMER and Niesmann + Bischoff vehicles.