Thousands raised for air ambulance in memory of Ray
A team of cyclists have raised more than £8,000 for Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance by tracing the final journey of a much-loved father and friend.
Ray Yeo, from Goring, was helping a neighbour put up a car port when he fell from a step ladder earlier this year.
He was flown to our specialist neurological centre but sadly passed away, leaving his wife Jill and their children Sean, Stephen and Sarah.
Friends Steve Dunlop and Jason Leith, and Ray’s sons, decided to raise funds for the charity helicopter by cycling from Ray’s home to St George’s Hospital and back.
Steve, 46, from Littlehampton, said: “Without the air ambulance getting him to St George’s so quickly there wouldn’t have been any hope at all.
“Ray really was such a great bloke who would always help anybody out which was exactly what he was doing when he had his accident – helping a neighbour to put up a car port.
“I, like many others, miss Ray so very much so I decided to try to do something in his memory…tracing his journey by cycling from his home to St George’s and then home – the journey that he wasn’t able to make.”
The team set off on their “Riding for Ray” challenge at 6am last month and completed the 120-mile round trip in a very impressive eight hours.
In total, the group of friends have raised £8,161 – 16 times their original £500 target – and can still be sponsored at www.justgiving.com/Steve-Dunlop68/
Each air ambulance callout costs about £2,500 so the substantial sum raised is enough to help potentially save three lives.
Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance Community Fundraising Officer Veronica Wiseman said: “We are enormously grateful to Ray’s family and friends for their fantastic fundraising efforts.”
