A Northallerton woman is flying high after being appointed as a community fundraiser for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Linda Stead took early retirement in 2013 after a 25-year career with Royal Mail – starting off delivering post but spending the last ten years helping to deliver human resource change programmes.
The 62-year-old and her husband, from Northallerton, then joined forces with friends to buy and refurbish the Oddfellows Arms pub in the town but after leasing that out Linda was looking for a new challenge.
She became a volunteer for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and has now been appointed as the rapid response emergency charity’s North Yorkshire Community Fundraiser.
Linda said: I was really attracted by the values of the charity – the fact that they don’t cold call or door knock – as well as how well it is run. You can see where the money goes.
It’s just such a fantastically positive job. We have such a great team in North Yorkshire. It’s a joy meeting people who want to do something to support the charity and others whose lives have been saved by Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Travelling around the beautiful but remote areas of North Yorkshire you realise just how much people living and visiting here rely on the air ambulance.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance needs to raise £12,000 every day to keep its helicopters flying. The charity serves five million people across Yorkshire, attending on average, more than 1,300 incidents a year.
Helen Callear, YAA regional fundraising manager, said: We are incredibly lucky to have Linda on board. Alongside her energy and enthusiasm she has so much relationship building and people management experience.
We are hoping to further boost funds from the North Yorkshire region this year with the help of our team of fantastic volunteers and the generous donors in our region.
If you would like to find out more about becoming a North Yorkshire volunteer for Yorkshire Air Ambulance contact Linda on 07471 038524 or email her on l.stead@yaa.org.uk
