Coventry-based Retail Transport Services back national lifesaving charity

Retail Transport Services (RTS) – recently celebrating its 20-year-milestone – have decided to give back by raising awareness and vital funds for the national Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA) charity.

The Children’s Air Ambulance, part of The Air Ambulance Service which also operates the local Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, is an inter-hospital transfer service flying critically ill babies and children from one hospital to another for specialist care.

At the start of the year, The Retail Transport Services named TCAA as their charity of the year and the teams in their Coventry and Manchester offices set themselves personal challenges throughout 2020, with the company matching their funds raised by the end of the year.

They hit the ground running by entering numerous events from 10k runs and half marathons to a full marathon. They completed a few incredible events, but sadly due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many events were cancelled – which is when a young supporter stepped forward.

Six-year-old Ellis, the son of RTS Freight Forwarder Stacy Woodall, had recently started learning how to ride his bike which was challenging for him due to some sensory challenges.

His determination took over and he decided to partake in the national ‘2.6 challenge’ to raise funds for the lifesaving children’s charity by cycling 26 laps of the garden – which he completed with a smile on his face.

Ellis raised a fantastic £371 for the Children’s Air Ambulance which Retail Transport Services will kindly match to an excellent £742, bringing the RTS team’s current total to £550 before match-funding!

TCAA Community Fundraiser Lee Bunting said “When Stacy informed me of Ellis’ desire to raise funds for us this way and during a difficult time, I thought it was an amazing idea. He has done so well and should be proud of himself.

“The charity relies solely on generous donations so I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to him, Stacy and everyone at Retail Transport Services for their ongoing support, especially during these unprecedented times – it is truly appreciated”.

If you’d like to donate to Ellis and the RTS team, visit their JustGiving page here

The Children’s Air Ambulance is continuing to fly missions through this difficult period, providing vital support to the NHS, and have recently launched a national appeal to help them keep flying critically ill babies and children – read more about the appeal here