Burnham-On-Sea Rotary Club has this week handed over a huge £7,000 cheque to Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance following a unique fundraising tractor run earlier this year.
The club held its heritage tractor run from Burnham to to Land’s End and back over the summer, as we reported here, when three Massey Ferguson tractors and their drivers – Alan Rawles, Colin Durston and Gordon Cox – completed the 620-mile return journey in six days.
“Sponsorship, nearly all from Somerset and Dorset, raised almost £7,000 and a cheque for this sum has this week been presented by Burnham Rotary Club to Colin Thomas, representative of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance,” said Rotary spokesman George Moon. “We were delighted to have raised such a huge sum for this charity.”
Thanking the club for its efforts, Mr Thomas said the recent problems affecting the Bond helicopter had been quickly rectified. He said that each mission flown costs around £2,500, so that effectively three mercy flights have been paid for by the Rotary Club’s event.
Burnham Rotarian Colin Durston, who helped to organise the tractor run, says the air ambulance is his favourite charity since he owes his life to it following an accident on his farm some 10 years ago.
Pictured: Top, Colin Thomas of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance receiving £7,000 from Burnham Rotary Club’s Colin Thomas, Gordon Cox, Colin Durston, President Bernard Raines and Vice President Ashley Edwards (pic Mike Lang) and, above, the tractor run in August
