Air Ambulance Charity for Surrey Needs More Volunteers

Published on: 10 Feb, 2023
Updated on: 12 Feb, 2023

Air Ambulance Charity for Kent Surrey and Sussex preparing for take-off

The Air Ambulance Charity for Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) needs more support Having just announced that 2022 was the busiest year in its 33-year history, the life-saving charity is urgently seeking to recruit more volunteers in order to help with more events and activities in the coming year.

The charity, which provides world-leading pre-hospital emergency care 24/7, currently has over 150 volunteers, who provide support through a wide range of activities including managing collection boxes, marshalling at events, speaking at community events, office tasks and more. Volunteers offer a few hours on an occasional basis or regular hours each month.

En-route to another emergency situation

Bridget Pepper, from the KSS Volunteer Development Team said, “Our volunteers were involved with raising or collecting over £250,000 on our behalf.”

“This year, with demand for our service at an all-time high and the need to raise even more funds due to the increased costs of operating our service, we are ramping up our fundraising activity and planning to run more events than ever before. To do this, we need to recruit more volunteers and we have a wide range of opportunities available to suit people of all ages and abilities.”

One of KSS’s volunteers, Nigel Baxter from West Horsley near Guildford shares his experience of being involved with KSS. He says, “I read a magazine article by another KSS volunteer which captivated my interest and so I made enquiries.”

Please listen to the interview with Nigel below…

“Where I live in Surrey seems to be under the flight path of many helicopters and those from KSS are usually low enough to distinguish. It makes you thankful that they aren’t coming to you, but sad that someone requires the amazing services of the doctors and paramedics that this truly wonderful charity provides.”

“I’ve made some good friends amongst the volunteers and always enjoy visits to the bases, listening to the talks and generally finding out more about how the service works. Like many people I became a volunteer to give something back, but I get so much back in return.”

KSS is an independent charity. It costs £16.6 million a year or £45k per day to operate its world-leading, life-saving service. This is a significant increase from the £15.2 million required in 2022.