Two riders are planning a sponsored skydrive for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance after the charity’s helicopter was called to help three generations of their family (pictured).
Natalie Brodrick and her niece Izzy Sharpe will be jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft at Headcorn Airfield in Kent this summer.
Izzy, 18, was airlifted last month (4 March) after she was thrown off a horse at a riding school in Playden.
The air ambulance’s doctor and paramedic feared she might have broken her pelvis so flew her to the regional major trauma centre at the Royal Sussex County hospital in Brighton.
Five years earlier Natalie Brodrick, 37, was airlifted after she fell of her horse in Camber.
In June last year her parents were involved in a car crash with an oncoming tractor and another vehicle at Peasmarsh in East Sussex.
The couple were treated at the roadside by the helicopter crew before being taken by land ambulance to the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards-on-Sea.
All four members of the family have since made a full recovery.
“You never know when you’re going to need the air ambulance. We all took precautions, mum and dad were wearing seatbelts and Izzy and I were both wearing a helmet and body protection,” said Mrs Brodrick.
“Riding is a risky sport and we all try to safeguard against injury as much as possible with protective equipment but you just never know what’s going to happen. All four of us have used the service and now we want to give something back.”
The air ambulance service in Kent, Surrey and Sussex celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It needs to raise £6m a year to keep its two helicopters airborne.
Almost half of the charity’s callouts are to road traffic collisions and about six percent are to equestrian accidents.
