We are proud to have received two national awards – Campaign of the Year and Innovation of the Year – at the prestigious Air Ambulances UK Awards of Excellence, hosted by ITV presenter Charlotte Hawkins and held at Coventry Building Society Arena, last night (28 November).
The awards, sponsored by Kwik Fit, celebrate excellence among those involved in the lifesaving work of air ambulance charities across the UK. They recognise the outstanding achievements of charity teams, campaigns, innovations, volunteers and young people, as well as clinical and aviation excellence.
We were proud to win Campaign of the Year for our recent Buy it for Life campaign which was launched in April in response to an urgent time-limited opportunity to buy our second helicopter. Thanks to the incredible work of Team KSS, and the phenomenal response from thousands of supporters across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, the campaign reached its £1M target in just six weeks. It went on to raise £2M, and we have now been able to purchase our helicopter and continue with our strategic plans to develop our service so that we can reach more patients and save even more lives into the future.
We partnered with Open Creates and Join the Dots to create the powerful campaign, and both were instrumental in its enormous success, which will have a lifesaving impact for thousands of people.
KSS was also honoured to win Innovation of the Year for our Restart a Heart Day campaign 2023 which saw us equip over 17,000 children and adults in just one day with the lifesaving skills of CPR and defibrillation through a series of new and innovative online training sessions to help save the lives of more people experiencing cardiac arrest.
Since the Awards of Excellence nominations closed, we have held our Restart a Heart Day 2024 campaign which hugely built of the success of 2023. Over 80,000 people took part in this year’s even bigger series of face-to-face and online events. To access the free 30-minutes online CPR and defibrillations training, provided by expert KSS doctors and paramedics, visit aakss.org.uk/restart.
David Welch, our Chief Executive, said: “I’m so very proud of both these awards, and more importantly, the exceptional team who worked incredibly hard to deliver both these initiatives, embodying our values in their commitment to our patients and the communities we serve.
“We’ve been truly overwhelmed by the phenomenal response from thousands of people within our communities to both our Buy it For Life appeal and our Restart a Heart Day CPR and defibrillation training. Neither would have been so successful without the incredible support of our communities. There is no doubt in my mind that, together, KSS will continue to reach even more patients and save more lives.”
Ben Paul. KSS Paramedic and Education Manager, said: “We’re so proud to have won Innovation of the Year as part of our work to equip as many people as possible in our communities with lifesaving skills. This wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work of staff and volunteers across the charity and the amazing engagement and interest from thousands of individuals, schools, businesses, community groups and other organisations.”
As well as winning two awards, Team KSS was also proud to be shortlisted for Charity Team of the Year.
More about both awards:
Campaign of the Year – Buy it For Life. (Sponsored by Kwik Fit)
Early in 2024 we had to switch aviation supplier at short notice when our long-standing aviation partner unexpectedly went into administration. The senior team worked hard to negotiate a favourable contract with the new partner. This included a rare and time limited opportunity for our charity to purchase our second helicopter.
This fantastic deal came with a massive challenge – we had just six weeks to create and launch our biggest ever integrated urgent fundraising appeal to raise £1M to complete the purchase of our second helicopter.
Thanks to the hard work of Team KSS and the phenomenal response to the campaign the £1M target was reached in six weeks and the appeal raised £2M when it closed at the end of July. Owning, rather than leasing this helicopter will save KSS half a million pounds a year, allowing us to progress with plans to fly for more hours each day, reaching more patients and saving even more lives. We will also be able to develop the capability to fly in more challenging weather conditions, to grow our Patient and Family Aftercare Service, and to introduce more community prevention and education initiatives.
Innovation of the Year – Restart a Heart Day. (Sponsored by Aeroptimo)
We believe every child, and every adult, has the potential to save a life. They just need to know how. That’s why for Restart a Heart Day (16 October 2023), we set out on an innovative and transformative journey which would harness technology to enable us to create an army of lifesavers across the South East.
On Restart a Heart Day 2023, from our charity headquarters at Rochester City Airport, we hosted a series of free, innovative online live-stream awareness sessions on how to provide CPR and use a defibrillator tailored to every age group from 4-80+. The interactive and fun sessions were led by KSS critical care doctors and paramedics.
The innovative initiative was an outstanding success, equipping an unprecedented 17,000 people, including individuals (many of them primary school children), and others from schools, businesses, organisations and groups, with these lifesaving skills in just one day. This has helped to transform the number of people across the South East ready and able to help save the life of someone in cardiac arrest.
