A 91-year-old south Shropshire man is aiming to raise £100,000 for the County Air Ambulance before he reaches his 100th birthday.
Now, with almost eight years of fundraising and £80,000 raised so far, Richard Knight of Cardington, seems on course to hit the target.
Richard has been the fundraising co-ordinator for the Air Ambulance in south Shropshire since 2000.
Asked why he’d taken the position, he said: “Simply, I retired for the second time, I’d done 17 years of three days a week, and I wanted something to do. I don’t sit about a lot.
“So I contacted them and said ‘how about it?’ and they said ‘yes’.”
His first fundraising target was £1,000. He’s come a long way since then. He said: “I don’t have any fixed targets.
“It’s left to me. I make my own targets, for self-motivation. You can’t do a thing like this without self-motivation.”
After he reached the £50,000 mark in his paying-in book, he decided to aim for the big £100,000 before he reaches the century himself.
Last October, Richard received the Chief Officers’ Commendation for exemplary actions beyond the call of duty for the benefit of others. October 2007.
Fortunately, Richard has never used the air ambulance. He said: “I’ve never been involved in that way, not at the sharp end.”
He has long been a supporter of the lifeboats and sees both charities as direct lifesaving charities.
He said: “They launch the boat to go out and save people and the air ambulance takes off to do the same thing.
“It’s unique and it’s the only way people can be helped where four wheels won’t go.”
Richard was conscripted into the army in 1940 but managed to get a transfer to the RAF a year later.
He had been hooked on flying since he was 10, after some AVRO 504K pilots near his home gave him a free ride in a plane.
He said: “I went back home and my mum said ‘What have you been doing?’ and I said ‘Nothing’. She took me to the mirror and I had a black face and white eyes where the flying goggles had been.”
In his time in the RAF, he combined his love of flying and sea rescue, working as an Air Sea Rescue Officer in Squadron 279 who used to drop lifeboats from the air to shipwrecked crews.
And what’s his next target once he’s reached £100,000? He said: “Well, I hope I make it, you can never tell how rates will change.
“I don’t know what my next target will be, don’t let my wife hear that because she thought I was going to retire at £50,000!”
Helen Hitchman, Air Ambulance area fundraising manager for Shropshire, told the Journal: “The amount that Richard has raised is fantastic and obviously we hope he does reach his goal because that would be just amazing.”
It costs £5.6million a year to keep the three helicopters which cover Shropshire and neighbouring counties flying.
Helen added: “Without people like Richard going out and supporting the county air ambulance, we would not be able to go out and save lives.”
