Mum’s tribute to Georgina

Sally Taylor organised a ‘Helly Welly’ day at her workplace, the Yorkshire Building Society in Knaresborough, which saw her colleagues swap their usual shoes for wellies in return for a donation to the charity. They raised £35 and the building society donated an additional £1,680 from its Charitable Foundation which will allow the charity to purchase life-saving equipment.

Sally’s daughter Georgina, who had a young son, was just 22 years old when she was killed in a car crash on January 25 last year.

Sally said: “George crashed in Oldham and was taken to hospital by the North West Air Ambulance where she died the next day. I wanted to do something for our local Air Ambulance here in Yorkshire.

“I’d like to thank everyone who supported the fundraising. Personally, it was a wonderful way to acknowledge the first anniversary of George’s death by giving the cheque to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.”

Sally’s son, William, is also planning a fundraising day at King James’s School Sixth Form to raise even more for Yorkshire Air Ambulance in memory of his sister. Sally and Rosie Brierley, manager of the Knaresborough branch, have been invited to help judge welly throwing and best dressed welly competitions.

Tony Doveston, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s regional manager, said: “We’d like to thank Sally, the team at Knaresborough and William for their fundraising efforts – the Helly Welly Day is a great idea and one of our more unusual fundraising ideas!

“It’s also a touching way to remember Georgina. It costs us nearly £10,000 per day to keep our helicopters in the air so we are grateful for every bit of help we receive.”

The Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation donation to the charity was made possible through the participation of Society members in the Small Change, Big Difference® scheme. More than 860,000 Yorkshire Building Society members now contribute to the scheme, in which the annual pence from their interest is donated to the Charitable Foundation.