In July 2023, our daughter Darcey was involved in a horrific freak accident at a horse event.

The paramedics on the scene were amazing and the 999 operator immediately called for air assistance as Darcey was in a critical condition. Thames Valley Air Ambulance arrived at the scene so fast and were able to give Darcey life saving treatment in order to stabilise and transfer her to hospital. The critical care doctor on board, Tim, saved her life that day. Not only that, he explained everything he did.

If it hadn’t of been for the speed of the paramedics and the air ambulance team being able to give blood transfusions and put her on a ventilator in a field in order to fly her to The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, our families future would look very different.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance exists to give everybody the best chance of surviving and recovering from an emergency.

They do everything in their power to protect, save and revive lives, with the best critical care at the scene and beyond.

They are not government or lottery funded, they rely on the generosity of the community – and people like you – to fund them.

We will never have enough words to thank Tim and his team for that day but I am challenging myself to run the London Marathon to give as much back as I can. I am not a runner so a challenge it will be but never has there been a bigger motivator to get my trainers on and smash it, it can’t be any harder than what we have been through.

Thank you so much for reading and your generous donations.

Much love,

Sarah (all the gear no idea), Ben (chief sign maker and my biggest supporter) and Darcey (the most inspirational of all) xxx