Hello there! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to consider donating to this cause very close to my heart.
Why have I chosen this charity? Well, Where to begin….

March the 9th 2020, started off as a very normal day,
I was on my daily commute to work on the C2C to my old Spitalfields Office when I received a call around 8 am from my mum that changed everything.

My dad has been on his way to work on his scooter about 45 mins before  – near to Southend Airport when out of nowhere he was hit by a Ford 4x4 pickup style vehicle on the junction of Clarence Road / Eastwood Road.

Just like that, the next 24 hours (and more) became a completely surreal time for the family. Myself and many of us never experiencing this kind of fear and dread in our lives.

 
Dad had been cared for and by quick decision airlifted by E&HAA to The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, as his injuries were so severe.
You name it anything on his right-hand side was essentially broken and damaged...ribs, hip, arm, collapsed lung, part of his bowels had died, bleeding on the liver and an emergency operation to place a stent his aorta, the list just kept growing. 

I was so fortunate to be close to the hospital on my way to work that I was first on the scene;

Massive thanks to my wonderful boss for dropping everything to come and being the calm level headed anchor I needed. The family started to arrive and unfortunately due to the extensive surgeries needed we were unable to see him until over 12 hours later which kept us all going stir crazy.

All I could think in the waiting room was thank goodness this amazing service reacted so quickly,
Without the quick responses of the team that day, It would be very likely that I would not have a dad to love and hold today.

A rollercoaster of emotions later, including Covid scares and months of still ongoing physio, skipping ahead to the present day, I'm now so fortunate to say that Dad is alive and doing well today, there's still a road to go to full recovery and In his own words  "If I were a cat, I have certainly used 8 of my lives" but so far to have the same amazing Dad of mind and soul who I've always known and loved today is nothing short of a miracle. My gig buddy, my mentor, my best friend I love you so so much.

I want to run for Essex & Herts Air Ambulance honestly as a thank you. Not just for saving my dads life, but the hundreds of others who have and haven’t been so lucky.

£2,200 is the average cost of a rescue for the E&HAA, which is mind blowing to think they had already rescued nearly 3 incidents a day in March by the time they reached my dad's.

Over this last year – I have very much got into the mentality of you have one life, and it can literally change in a matter of seconds. I took up running around June of 2020, being a yoyo runner for years and fed up with indoor workouts, it gave me the mental health boost and structure I needed around corona and dad's recovery. I started setting myself goals, 10k, 10k under an hour, half marathon, and now my next big goal is the marathon (something this time last year I wouldn’t have dreamed of achieving & I'm so happy that the E&HAA have been kind enough to offer me a place)

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast, and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you so much for your time,
And if you're unable to donate, I'd appreciate you sharing my story.

I hope in the best kind of way - you never need to experience this in your life, but if you do you'll thank your lucky stars there's a service like this to help

An extra massive thankyou to the guys at 'Benfleet Physiotherapy' (http://benfleetphysiotherapy.co.uk/), who have been and still are a vital helping hand on dad's road to recovery.
The amazing work they do there is making a difference to his wellbeing everyday.

xx