Money raised for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance in memory of Fiona Vigar
Friends of the the late Cattistock field master Fiona Vigar have raised over £15,000 for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance in her memory, by completing a coast-to-coast cycle-ride.
Fiona died on 10 February 2013 following a hunting accident on 24 January, when her horse slipped on the road in Loders, Dorset and she hit her head.
Rupert Rees — who hunts with the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale — persuaded 15 of her friends to take part in the 54-mile cycle-ride from Watchet in Somerset to West Bay in Dorset on Sunday, 19 May.
“Fiona completed the ride herself two years ago after another fall [when she was taken by air ambulance to Southampton], and so we were following in her footsteps,” he said.
“Most of us were complete [cycling] novices. But having bought the bikes and got into training the money has just snowballed.”
It costs approximately £4,000 a day to run the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, and the charity receives no funding from the Government or the National Lottery, relying almost entirely on public donations.
To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com/Sally-Reid
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.