Matthew Switzer

London Marathon 2021 - Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance

Fundraising for Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance
£1,701
raised of £1,700 target
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
Event: London Marathon 2021, on 3 October 2021
We provide a helicopter emergency service to rapidly respond to medical emergencies.

Story

My older brother Ben is an absolute legend. He has autism, but is the kindest, funniest and most astonishingly resilient person I know. However, without the life-saving work of the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance Service (“WNAA” - https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk), he wouldn’t be here. 

One afternoon a few years ago, while returning in a minibus from his favourite day placement in MK to his care home in Bedford, a car suddenly veered across the road and collided head-on with the minibus. Although Ben was wearing a seat-belt, the impact of the crash left him with severe head injuries and resulted in his heart stopping a number of times in the air ambulance on the way to the hospital.  His injuries required him to be placed in an intensive care unit for several weeks and to undergo major facial reconstruction surgery. Ultimately, Ben lost his right eye and now has a polymer implant for his forehead, but it could have been a lot worse without the WNAA.

When Ben eventually left hospital after nearly 8 weeks, it was the happiest moment of my life. Despite everything, Ben is still the same incredible person he’s always been 😁. I'm forever indebted to the amazing WNAA crew who saved my brother. By raising at least £1,700 (the average cost of an air ambulance mission), hopefully I can give another family the second chance that my family were so fortunate to receive. 

Any donation, however big or small, would be fantastic.  Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated following my DIY 2-marathons-in-a-week challenge last October (following the postponement of the 2020 London Marathon due to COVID). I ran the virtual London Marathon on 4 October in 3h09m and the virtual Milton Keynes Marathon on 10 October in 3h17m (... after doing a skydive).

If you’d like to follow my training progress, feel free to check out my Strava profile: https://www.strava.com/athletes/41140615. 

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About the charity

Every day of the year, your local air ambulance (Warwickshire & Northamptonshire) is helping save more lives. Our critical care paramedics, doctors and pilots attend an average of five rescue missions a day. We receive no government funding for our daily missions. Your support keeps us flying.

Donation summary

Total raised
£1,700.20
+ £24.00 Gift Aid
Online donations
£1,700.20
Offline donations
£0.00

* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.