Ben Hawkins and Chloe Spencer from the East of England Ambulance Service have joined forces to battle their own fear of heights and raise vital funds for the national charity dedicated to supporting the UK’s ambulance community.
On the 31st August 2021, Ben, an Emergency Dispatcher from Peterborough, and Chloe, a Senior Emergency Medical Technician and Student Paramedic from March in Cambridgeshire, will be travelling 1.5km at a breath-taking 100mph on Zip World’s Velocity 2 zipline at Penrhyn Slate Quarry in North Wales.
Ben and Chloe set out to raise £2,000 and have already topped that total, raising over £2,400 so far. This amount is set to help TASC provide an extra 41 hours of counselling or 48 sessions of physiotherapy for people injured in the line of duty. The team are raising funds online via JustGiving: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chloe-bentasc
Chloe said:
“Both of us are recovering from previous mental illness and have partnered up to raise money for something we share a passion about – our green family. This is our opportunity to raise as much money as possible to support them either mentally with psychological support, physically through physio or with financial support. TASC is the charity supporting thousands of ambulance staff, like us, who rely on the support and generosity of wonderful people, like you.”
Ben said:
“TASC has helped so many people with both their mental health, physical wellbeing and finances. We are so passionate about making a change and TASC are the charity allowing this to happen. So many of our colleagues are feeling the stress of the pandemic and feeling unwell mentally so it’s important they can go to TASC for support so we can continue to help patients who need us.”
The team were originally set for completing the zipwire in mid-July alongside 17 other TASC fundraisers in the Ultimate Fundraising Weekend, but had to postpone when Ben tested positive for Covid. Fully recovered, Ben and Chloe are now looking forward to completing their challenge that has been months in the making.
Ben said:
“We were gutted we couldn’t take part with the rest of the fundraisers. Covid is still a real issue for the ambulance community as we both had to self-isolate, which put pressure on our colleagues and the service. Now more than ever, ambulance staff need support so please donate to our challenge and TASC’s cause, if you can’t donate then you share our page so that someone who may be able to support us can. Finally, thank you so much to everyone who’s supported us so far.”
Jasmin Rana, TASC’s Director of Income Generation and Supporter Engagement, said:
Support Ben and Chloe“We’re so grateful that Chloe and Ben are battling their fears and taking on this epic challenge to support our cause and raise vital funds for TASC. Ambulance staff have one of the most stressful jobs in the UK, and the continuing and long-term impacts of Coronavirus are making their job that much harder. At TASC, we’re seeing demand for our services growing year-on-year and this is rapidly increasing as our lifesaving ambulance staff experience the mental, physical and financial impacts of the pandemic. With the support of people like Chloe and Ben, TASC can continue to be there for the UK’s lifesavers when they’re struggling and need a bit of help themselves.”