Nine-year-old Scarlett Fuller from Ash, Surrey, is the youngest person to date to sign up to our 30 for 30 Challenge, an exciting fundraiser launching in September.
Scarlett has set herself the challenge of cycling 30 miles throughout the 30 days of September to raise much-needed funds for our life-saving charity, after we recently rescued her grandfather following a serious incident. In July, Scarlett’s grandfather, Paul, was thrown from his horse whilst riding on the beach at West Wittering in Sussex. Having suffered serious injuries, our specialist doctor was required to treat Paul at the scene before he could be transported via helicopter to hospital in Chichester.
Paul is now recovering at home, and when Scarlett discovered that we were a charity she was determined to help, inspired by the 30 for 30 Challenge.
Launched to celebrate our 30th anniversary and to help raise vital funds, the 30 for 30 Challenge encourages participants to create their own 30-themed fundraiser during the 30 days of September. The fundraiser is focused on health and well-being, encouraging supporters to get up and get active, or take up a challenge that focuses on promoting well-being, like learning a new skill.
From giving up a favourite treat for 30 days to running 30 miles, taking on a 30-minute fitness challenge or reading 30 new books, the 30 for 30 Challenge is open to everyone.
And through sponsorship from family, colleagues and friends, we hope that the 30 for 30 Challenge will help raise much-needed funds. In April, we launched our Coronavirus Emergency Appeal to cover the additional costs of operating our world-class pre-hospital emergency response service safely during the pandemic, and to cover a significant shortfall in our income resulting from the cancellation of all major fundraising events.
Although the Appeal has raised over £1.5m to date, enabling us to be fully operational at all times, we are still facing a shortfall of £1.4m, which we must raise to ensure we can continue to save lives 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Lynne Harris, our Executive Director of Income Generation says: “Scarlett is an inspiration, and we are so grateful to her and to everyone who has signed up to take part in our 30 for 30 Challenge so far.”
“We had a number of special events planned to celebrate our 30th anniversary this year, and to thank our wonderful supporters. Although these are unable to happen at the current time, we really hope that this Challenge is a way for us to celebrate and to help us to raise much-needed funds.”
Lynne continues: “Over the past 30 years we have treated more than 30,000 patients with our world class, life-saving emergency care. It costs more than £14 million a year to sustain our service and amazingly 89% is donated and raised by the people of Kent, Surrey and Sussex – amazing people like Scarlett.”
“Coronavirus has drastically impacted our fundraising plans in so many ways – including the decision to stop all canvassing activity for our lottery and our planned store collections, prioritising the health and safety of our canvassers, volunteers and the public who support us. Now, we need your help to ensure we are here 24/7 for the next 30,000 patients who need us.”
Scarlett’s Mum, Sarah Fuller, adds: “When Scarlett found out that KSS is a charity and that it needs to raise its own funds in order to provide its extraordinary service, she really wanted to help. We read about the 30 for 30 Challenge and Scarlett decided that her own challenge would be to ride 30 miles on her bicycle.”
“We are really proud of Scarlett, who loves helping out. Friends and family are planning to join in at different stages, and importantly her Grandad will be there on the finishing line when she completes the challenge.”
Scarlett’s Grandad, Paul Fuller, says: “Scarlett is a top girl and I am really proud of her for raising awareness for such an amazing charity.”
Scarlett Fuller says: “I am looking forward to completing my bike ride challenge. I hope to reach my target and the money raised goes to helping people in the future.”
Click here to help Scarlett exceed her £250 target. You can find out more and get involved in our 30 for 30 Challenge here.
