This year an intrepid team from AW Group based in Folkestone, Kent will be taking on the daunting task of completing the Three Peaks Challenge in just 24 hours.

Our aim is to raise as much money as possible for Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex a charity which has played a very special part in saving the life of one of our staff members! During 2017 One of our directors suffered a severe fall which resulted in fracturing all the bones in his face, as well as suffering an open femoral fracture, a fractured wrist and forearm, dislocated elbow, and severe haemorrhaging.

The 999 call handler identify the injuries as being of such a nature that they immediately initiated the call to KSSS Air Ambulance. The medical team arrived, and Tom was intubated at the scene of the fall and then flown to King’s College Hospital, London where he was moved to an ICU.

Undergoing further procedures to have his femur fixed, wrist set and a tracheostomy, a further 10 hours of surgery followed, with several further surgeries thereafter. At the time of the accident the hospital was celebrating the first anniversary of the opening of the £9.3 million helipad allowing patients to be transported to the major trauma centre quicker and ultimately saving more lives.

Without the quick thinking of the call handler, the speed at which KSSAA arrived and transported Tom to King’s College Hospital he may not have made such a remarkable recovery. As Tom said at the time ‘You really don’t realise how crucial it is until you need it – thankfully my boys and unborn child still have their dad.’

Tom is still undergoing treatment to this day and therefore we felt it fitting to support a charity that ultimately saved his life, allowed him to grow part of the AW Group and employ a significant number of people from the Folkestone area where our offices are based.

Our little challenge will take place over the weekend of 8th/9th June 2024 and already we, as a team are training hard to make this such a success.

Over the coming weeks we will be updating this page to reflect the trials and tribulations of training for this event, some of the team have never done anything like this before and we are using this event as a huge company “coming together” motivating not just the team but encouraging all our staff, clients, suppliers, family and friends to join us on our training hikes and walks across Kent and further afield.

So, stay tuned, more to come!

Thank you for visiting our JustGiving page in support of Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS).

KSS is an independent charity. It costs over £16.6M a year to sustain their world-leading, cutting edge, innovative service and amazingly 87% is donated and raised by the people of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

Your donation means KSS can continue to provide the best care at the worst of times for their patients and stay at the forefront of pre-hospital critical care.

"The average cost of a mission is (aptly) £4,100. This cost includes our dispatchers, medics and pilots, fuel for our helicopter or Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV), equipment and helicopter maintenance, medicines, and disposable medical supplies."

More details can also be found https://aakss.org.uk and https://awltd.co.uk