Members of a Peterborough running club donate £500 to Air Ambulance

Each year the club, which has more than 100 members, donates money from its fund-raising efforts, which include cake sales, invitation runs with other local running clubs and its ever-popular race the Folksworth 15.

This year, the recipients were East Anglian Air Ambulance, a charity the club has a special affinity with, and the Folksworth Village Hall, a venue the club uses as its race headquarters for the Folksworth 15.

Yaxley Runners chairman Gary Thurgood said: “It is so important to the club and our members to give something back each year, and these two organisations are particularly close to us”.

On receiving the donation of £500 for East Anglian Air Ambulance, community fundraiser Tammy Swiderski said: “On behalf of all of us at the East Anglian Air Ambulance, a massive thank you to everyone in the Yaxley Runners group for their fantastic continued support. We receive no direct government funding or National Lottery grants, and therefore rely on the generosity of groups such as this, as well as local businesses and the public to help us raise the funds to continue to provide vital helicopter emergency medical services to the people of East Anglia.

“We are the only air ambulance in the East of England capable of flying at night, but we are currently not able to provide our services 24/7, meaning that there is a seven-hour gap in services between the hours of midnight to 7am. Our goal is to be able to eliminate this gap to ensure that we are able to provide our lifesaving services at any time of the day by 2020.”

Yaxley Runners meet weekly in Hampton, details can be found on their website www.yaxleyrunners.org.uk.

New members are always welcome.