Do you seriously imagine Bankstone and their mates enjoy riding round the rainsoaked ridings all weekend on undersized motorcycles? Well OK, they do. But the point is: raising money for a charity that is out there saving lives on a daily basis right across Yorkshire and beyond.
It costs £7,200 a day to keep the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service flying – so there’s a very serious point to Bankstone’s fundraising efforts with the Monkey Business sponsored ride (see previous Bankstone News stories).
In previous years the event has had fantastic support in terms of people getting on their bikes – literally or metaphorically – and taking part. Where there’s been a weakness is on the sponsorship/fundraising side.
So with two weeks to go, we are asking everyone who’s taking part (and if you’re not – why not?) to get on and bother colleagues, clients, suppliers, friends, relations, probation officers, masseuses etc. to sponsor them to the hilt.
You can use a standard sponsorship form and collect cash after the event if you insist – but the simpler option, and the one that seamlessly enables Gift Aid, is to direct your sponsors to the Monkey Business Just Giving page online.
So start scouring your address book – ePester everyone you know and let’s see if we can raise a respectable total this year – and maybe save a life or two into the bargain. Who knows; one day it could be you or someone you love stretched out on the tarmac needing help.
In amongst the many other seriously injured people the YAA has whisked off for life-saving treatment in the nick of time down the years, have been many fallen bikers. Since September last year alone, the YAA has attended 60 incidents where motorcycles were involved. They don’t compile separate stats for monkeybikers.
Viewers of daytime television will already be familiar with the vital role the YAA plays in defying the region’s rampant accidental death toll via the popular Helicopter Heroes series (the BBC rejected the YAA’s own suggested title: Just Regular People with a Job to Do).
Series 4 starts on Monday, airing at 9.15 on BBC1 every weekday for four weeks – just in case you need convincing of the value of the work the YAA does.
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