Addenbrooke's Hospital admits approximately 3,500 children every year and the Paediatric Intensive Care Centre for the East of England .

If a child has a serious illness or needs emergency treatment then they will need transporting in an ambulance. However, while adults and newborn babies who need intensive care treatment are blue-lighted by dedicated, specialist ambulance services, there is currently no such ambulance service in the East of England specifically for critically ill children.

Children have significantly different needs to newborns and adults and are best served by a dedicated childrens ambulance.

Instead, today, hundreds of children requiring urgent transportation to an Intensive Care Unit have to rely on a London-based service to transport them. This can cause delays in treatment and anxiety for worried parents or carers. It can also result in delayed transfers back to their local hospital for their final stages of recovery, increasing the time theyre separated from friends and family.

The 2019 Chariots of Fire, organised by Hewitson's Charitable Trust has partnered with Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT). With your sponsorship, we need to raise funds for an Emergency Children's Ambulance that will benefit on average 1,700 children a year. Will you help us?

Chariots of Fire, organised and managed by Hewitsons Charitable Trust, taking place on Sunday 22 September, is one of Cambridgeshires largest annual charity events. The charity race follows in the heroic footsteps of the famous film Chariots of Fire, telling the story of Harold Abrahams, a Cambridge runner, and his bid to win a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics. It includes the iconic scene of the race around Trinity College Great Court. Teams of six each run a 1.7 miles course in relay format.

If every team participating in the 2019 Chariots of Fire raised a minimum of £300, together we can get the new children's ambulance service on the road. This would effectively provide an Intensive Care Unit on wheels to keep children alive during transfers, ensuring that they survive long enough to get to Addenbrooke's.

For more information please contact Emily Willdigg, Events Lead at ACT - emily.willdigg@act4addenbrookes.org.uk