Shrewsbury companies raise £12,000 for air ambulance services

Maria Jones (right) from Midlands Air Ambulance and Anna Evans (second from left) from Wales Air Ambulance receive cheques from Diane Griffiths and Phil Gittins from Morris Lubricants and Gareth and Judith Jones from Morris LeisureCharity fundraisers at two well known Shropshire companies have raised £12,000 to be shared by the Midlands and Wales Air Ambulance Services.

Charity fundraisers at two well known Shropshire companies have raised £12,000 to be shared by the Midlands and Wales Air Ambulance Services.

Morris Lubricants and Morris Leisure, based in Shrewsbury, raised the money by organising an annual raft race, by staff taking part in Three Peaks and a zip wire challenges, by playing a charity football match against Salop Leisure at the Greenhous Meadow Stadium and by organising an Irish bingo, raffles and collections.

The raft race raised £5,000, Morris Lubricants and Morris Leisure contributed £1,500 towards the final total and workmates Phil Gittins, Adrian Hill, Phil Saunders and Craig Bastable together with Sarah Jones from Burntree, Shrewsbury raised £1,200 by completing the Three Peaks Challenge.

Jane Shelton, Faye Crawley and Heather Watkins raised £200 by taking part in a zip wire challenge and the charity football match raised £300.

The companies have raised £44,000 for charities over the last three years - £20,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2012, £12,000 for Severn Hospice in 2013 and £12,000 last year for the air ambulance services.

Maria Jones, regional fundraising manager for Midlands Air Ambulance, said: “We need to raise £6 million every year to run the service. We really enjoyed working with Morris Lubricants and Morris Leisure during 2014 and we are delighted with the fantastic amount of money raised by the companies which will pay for missions to save lives.”

Anna Evans from Wales Air Ambulance said: “We are delighted to have been supported by such well established companies which have strong links with Wales and the borders. The money raised will go towards fuelling our air ambulances and every single penny raised is important for maintaining the service in Wales.”

This year’s adopted charity is the British Heart Foundation, which was chosen after Morris Lubricants’ works supervisor Adrian Griffiths, 47, tragically died from a heart attack at home last month.

A fundraising event already planned is a revised raft race on the River Severn in Shrewsbury on June 7. This year, teams will have to build their raft and race it all on the same day. Team will be given 105 minutes to assemble their raft in the Quarry, Shrewsbury before carrying it to the River Severn and sailing it down to Pengwern boathouse.

Teams comprise between four and six members and Morris Lubricants is hoping for at least 20 entries, each paying £250, which will go to the charity. Other fundraising events are still to be finalised but the companies hope to raise a significant sum in memory of their late workmate.

Morris Lubricants’ managing director Andrew Goddard praised the dedication of staff and friends in organising a series of successful events to make it another memorable fundraising year.

“It was a fantastic effort to raise £12,000 for the Midlands and Wales Air Ambulance Services during 2014,” he said. “They are very worthy charities which save countless lives with their excellent work both sides of the Welsh border.

“This year’s fundraising challenge is particularly poignant following the recent tragic loss of Adrian Griffiths and we hope to raise another significant sum for the British Heart Foundation as a fitting tribute to him.”