News Hub

Don Valley Academy Backs Lifesaving Children’s Charity

Students and staff at Don Valley Academy will be planning their own fundraising schemes such as bake sales, pyjama football tournament, head shaves, raffles, litter picking and auctions.

One of the teachers has even committed to completing a bungee jump, while Richard Brooke, Principal, has completed 10,000 skips with a skipping rope. The Academy’s support for the service follows a special arrival at Doncaster Sheffield Airport in September last year when the national Children’s Air Ambulance charity landed at its new airbase from where it will launch missions to help to save young lives.

Don Valley Academy is part of the Delta Academies Trust, which has adopted TCAA as its Charity of the Year, following its arrival in Doncaster in 2018.

Commenting on the challenge, Sarah Hanquinioux, Associate Assistant Principal said: “We are extremely proud to be challenging our students and staff to raise £10,000 in 10 weeks for The Children’s Air Ambulance. We know the difference the ambulance can have on those little lives, when they need them the most and we know our school community will continue to support us in our fundraising.  Events will be taking place throughout the next 10 weeks including coffee mornings, sponsored swims, staff bungee jumps and much, much more.”

Welcoming the show of support, TCAA Director of Operations Richard Clayton added: “We’re very proud to base our service in Doncaster, in the heart of South Yorkshire, and look forward to working with supporters from Don Valley Academy to ensure we’re able to keep our aircraft flying, keep hope alive and keep families together.”

The Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA) is the first and only dedicated paediatric and neonatal transfer helicopter service in the country operating four times faster than road transfer. It is funded entirely by donations and works closely with nine NHS Clinical Partner Teams such as Embrace, a specialist, round-the-clock transport service for critically ill infants and children in Yorkshire and the Humber, which is associated with Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Since 2012, the charity has completed more than 380 missions with its clinical partners operating out of the Midlands with one aircraft but the decision to provide two helicopters at bases in the north and south of Great Britain will enable the charity to meet more needs with a target of 600 missions a year.