We’re incredibly proud to have accepted the prestigious Community Hero award at the Surrey Business Awards 2023 on Tuesday 17th October in recognition of providing world-class pre-hospital life-saving emergency medical care 24/7 to people across the county.
The awards, organised by Surrey Chamber of Commerce and held at the G Live Theatre in Guildford, celebrate the achievements of many different organisations across Surrey.
We were recognised for our commitment to drive forward the understanding and development of pre-hospital emergency medicine in order to improve patient outcomes and advance the sector. This includes being one of the first UK air ambulance charities to carry blood products on board, continuing our programme of research with the University of Surrey and trialling a number of ground-breaking initiatives such as exploring pioneering in-flight care procedures.
We were also delighted to be Official Charity Partner of the event. Many members of our team, including staff and volunteers, were at the event to talk to guests about our life-saving work while raising awareness and funds through donation collections and hosting a raffle with exciting prizes, raising a total of £7,000 on the night.
Ian Howick, our Executive Director of Corporate Service, said: “I was honoured to receive the award on behalf of Team KSS. There were some outstanding, innovative organisations in the Community Hero award category doing great work in our community, but there was a lot of genuine affection in the room for our service which was incredibly humbling.”
Alex Redwood, our Head of Corporate Development, said: “We’re so grateful to everyone for the overwhelming support we received. Accepting this award is a fantastic testament to the incredibly valuable role we play in communities across Surrey and beyond.”
David Welch, our Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to win the Community Hero award, helping to recognise the vital contribution of our Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex. We hope people never need us, but sadly, demand for KSS’s life-saving service is at an all-time high. Last year, we responded to over 3,200 incidents, the charity’s busiest year in its 33-year history, 747 of these incidents (24% of our total number of call outs) were in Surrey.
We’re incredibly grateful to our fundraisers and supporters. Without the support we receive from our local communities, we would simply not be able to get off the ground to deliver life-saving care to people in Kent, Surrey and Sussex in their hour of need.”
