Red Funnel Raises Over £30,000 For Air Ambulance Charity

Isle of Wight ferry operator Red Funnel has raised more than £30,000 so far this year for its 2025 Charity of the Year, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

The funds will help support the charity’s vital work responding to emergencies across the region, as well as its ambitious plans to relocate its airbase to a more central site in Southampton — putting crews within a ten-minute flight of almost every patient in Hampshire and on the Island.

The total has been boosted by generous customer donations made online and via collection boxes at terminals and on board ferries, as well as a series of staff fundraising challenges.

Among the highlights, two Red Funnel teams took on the gruelling National Three Peaks Challenge, climbing the UK’s highest mountains — Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon — in just 24 hours, raising more than £3,000.

Colleagues, including CEO Fran Collins, also took part in the charity’s “Dash in the Dark” 5K fun run at the Isle of Wight County Showground earlier this month, contributing to a combined total of £25,000 raised from the event — enough to fund seven lifesaving missions.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance CEO Richard Corbett said:

“From the first moment they visited our airbase, we knew this partnership was going to be special.

"The difference Red Funnel has made to our service — and to our patients and their families — has been enormous.”

The Air Ambulance team responds to around seven emergencies every day, and in 2024 alone was called out nearly 2,500 times.

Fran Collins added:

“Every donation and every bit of effort helps support the air ambulance team’s lifesaving work.

"It’s a privilege to be part of something that makes such a real difference in our community.”

Red Funnel’s Charity of the Year programme has raised over £400,000 for local causes since it launched in 2015, as part of the company’s Changing Tides community initiative.

You can find out more or donate via: redfunnel.co.uk/coty2025 

You can donate via: justgiving.com/team/redfunnelpeaks1