For over two decades, our charity has been saving lives – and along the way, we’ve witnessed some truly wild and wonderful fundraising ideas!
Here’s our roundup of fundraising stories guaranteed to bring a smile to your face!
Fancy dress at the Great North Run
As if a half-marathon wasn’t difficult enough, we’ve had two people dress up in our helicopter mascot uniform while completing the Great North Run
First was our paramedic Jake who managed the run in two hours and 34 minutes.
The following year, supporter Adam Price broke the world record for the fastest time dressed as a three-dimensional aircraft, when he crossed the finish line in just over two hours and 15 minutes. Read Adam’s story here.
Not satisfied with just one challenging half marathon; in 2024 Jake returned to the start line of the Great North Run dressed in his life-saving uniform, carrying one of our 10kg training bags.
Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind to the runners last year and most of them ended up drenched from the rain (as well as sweat).
Knobbly ankles contest
Are your ankles knobbly enough to be award-winning? When we say our supporters find weird and wonderful ways to raise money for us… we really mean it.
Fundraiser Amanda visited the lovely ladies at Norham Women’s Institute, where she had the chance to chat all things GNAAS.
Once the talk had finished, she was invited to judge the ‘knobbliest ankle competition’…
That’s not how she imagined she’d be spending her afternoon, but at the end they kindly presented her with a cheque for £130.
Midtown Milkhouse’s book exchange
The family who run the Midtown Milkhouse in Caldbeck have had a phone box for years, so they decided to put it to good use and set up a book exchange with a collection tin for GNAAS inside.
Debra said: “Books are a comfort especially this year and that’s why GNAAS are our chosen charity and everyone is giving so generously because GNAAS is also a great comfort to rural communities like ours and we all appreciate the importance of the service. It’s a simple idea that is quietly raising much needed funds.”
Sonny’s book character running challenge
To mark his 10th birthday Sonny ran 1k in his garden in Gateshead dressed up as different characters from David Walliams’ books for 10 days, and even received a special video message and donation from the author.
He said: “I chose to raise money for GNAAS because my dad was doing some work with them, so I looked at their website and saw that they use helicopters to save lives which I thought was really cool.
“I wanted my fundraising to be fun, interesting and something to do with sport because I love being active.”
Christmas tree
Supporter Neil regularly attends our bike nights held on the third Thursday of every month during spring and summer. In addition to supporting us during these events he came up with the idea of auctioning off a homegrown Christmas tree.
Over the course of seven years, Neil’s tree had grown from a small cutting in his front garden to being three metres high.
After receiving several bids for the tree, a kind guy from Yarm paid £80 and dug it out and replanted it at his home.
Leo’s hot dog challenge
Teenager Leo Armstrong from Middlesbrough has taken part in several fundraising challenges since he was only eight and has raised thousands of pounds for GNAAS.
During lockdown in 2020, Leo bought a hot dog costume to try and cheer people up, and decided to incorporate it in his future fundraising challenges.
When restrictions eased he walked up and down Roseberry Topping 13 times in 12 hours wearing his costume and raised nearly £1,685.
He then dusted it off again, and wore it while walking 23 miles from Saltburn to Whitby, and raised £920.
Karl’s 24-hour gaming marathon
Karl Cleet was only 19 when he was crushed after a car reversed into him, trapping him against another car close to his family home in Eaglescliffe.
GNAAS flew to the scene and pulled Karl from under the car before assessing and treating his injuries, which included broken ribs, a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain.
He was put into a medically-induced coma before being flown to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough for further treatment.
To commemorate five years since being a patient of GNAAS, he decided to do a 24-hour charity livestream playing games on Twitch and raised £310.
Wheely fun
Fundraiser Mieke had the pleasure of speaking to the Haltwhistle Young Farmers, and she couldn’t stop praising them, saying, “They’re such a lovely bunch”.
In a fantastic show of generosity, the group raised an impressive £1,062 through a wheelbarrow race where they were all wearing fancy dress.
We absolutely love hearing about fun and creative fundraising efforts like this – a huge thank you to everyone who supports our charity.
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