Royal Air Forces Association Blog

23/05/11

Back from Africa after our mammoth climb, and reading my previous blog I don’t know why I was so concerned about not having anything to do!

Since being back we have had 26 fantastic runners supporting us at the London Marathon, thousands of bikers turned up for our Ride out for the RAF, 12 brilliant runners supporting us at the Great Manchester Run, a day with the RAF Biathlon team at RAF Honington for time trials and skiing lessons and a visit to one of our independent living homes (Wexford House) where we met Harry, a 90-year-old rear gunner who has flown over 50 sorties!!!

There was also our annual conference in Eastbourne and beer with the boys and girls at RAF Valley (compliments of Wolf Brewery)

My initial thoughts were that now that conference is over with, things should calm down a little but I fear I may be wrong again. We have the Southend Airshow this weekend closely followed by RAF Lossiemouth and not to mention our various cycle challenges across the UK.

We’re really looking forward to the summer with so many amazing events going on, with The Blades, our new flight simulator, and our fantastic volunteers.

Follow us facebook.com/RAFWingsAppeal & twitter.com/RAFWingsAppeal to find out what’s going on near you.

17/03/11

After months of scrambling over muddy hillocks and running endlessly up and down the hills of Kibworth, packing bags in Sainsburys in Market Harborough & Bikini Car Washing. The big day has finally arrived!

I will be heading down to Heathrow later today to meet with the rest of the RAF Association team so we can begin our adventure.

Up we go!

After speaking to the team I know that we are going to be in for a good (but challenging) time, everyone is so excited.

Really when i signed up to this challenge, it seemed like it was miles away and now its here, I’m wondering what I’m going to do with myself after it. Maybe take up one of the other challenges we have going on, maybe run the Edinburgh Marathon or trek the Great Wall of China??? Decisions, decisions, I guess I’ll just wait to see how I feel when I get back. I will be blogging about our experiences everyday so if you would like to find out more about how we're getting on visit http://www.rafa.org.uk/events-national.asp?id=697

18/02/11

OK so it’s exactly four weeks until we head off to Africa and start our five day, 5895 metre climb up Kilimanjaro!
There are five of us in total raising money for the RAF Association and we will be joining 23 other fundraisers on the trek. Training has been a bit of a challenge for me as I can get easily distracted, but I think I’m on track.

Tonight will see me running up and down the largest, muddiest hill in Kibworth with a florescent jacket and head torch on, oh the glamour! With Leicestershire being quite flat, a few days up in the Peaks and the Lakes along with a sunny break to the Atlas Mountains at the end of last year have definitely helped improve my hill walking fitness.

However at the end of the day it’s the altitude sickness that worries me. It’s a bit like stepping into the unknown, especially as I have never been up to anywhere near 5895 metres before! I guess I’ll find out when I get there.

Fundraising for this challenge has been really good fun, we’ve held a party, a bikini car wash and a supermarket bag pack (and even that was a laugh) amongst other things. I think it has been easier for me as I have had my best friend beside me the whole way. Claire is also raising money for the RAF Association and will be joining me on the challenge.

We are both so excited about it (albeit a bit nervous). We’ve just got to decide what kit to take with us now. Myself and the team will be blogging from the mountain daily so you can read about the trials and tribulations we face along the way by visiting www.rafa.org.uk

Thanks x

08/12/10

The snow is starting to melt and things are getting back to normal here at head office in Leicester. With a number of events going on in the run up to Christmas, including Christmas concerts in Perth Scotland and Lincoln, we’re all hoping the snow will stay away at least until the New Year. Fingers crossed.

It’s an exciting time for us as the first batch of telephone cards are being dispatched to troops on deployment in Afghanistan, just in time for Christmas. The money raised from our Miles More Minutes campaign has meant that we can send £10,000 worth of telephone cards out to Afghanistan enabling troops to stay in touch with loved ones back home for even longer.

To continue raising money for this great initiative and others, we have launched a competition with the help of The Blades. The text to win competition is the second one we have run this year. The first one ran over the summer air show season and was a huge success. This time round it’s a slightly different competition, text WINGS to 70007 and you could be in with not only a chance of winning a flight with The Blades, but also a chance to spend the day with world famous, World Superbike rider Leon Haslam! Texts cost £2 plus one message at your standard network rate, but a minimum of £1.54 will come straight to the Association from each entry (T&C’s apply)

Also thanks to an off the cuff remark on a radio show from a serving member of the RAF, Pot Noodle have created a new flavour and we will be receiving a donation from every pot sold. Apparently the boys and girls out in theatres across the world love Pot Noodles! So in response to the request, Pot Noodle are offering that little taste of home this Christmas with their new Christmas dinner flavoured Pot Noeldle, complete with mulled wine sauce. Love it! Check out the video that comes with it here

Happy Christmas Everyone x

29/10/10

A disused underground station, RAF Beers, St Paul’s, 1940’s dress, fake oysters, 2200 people, contraband chocolate, RAF Tea, Air raid sirens, Tube Strikes, Spam, Gala dinners, posh frocks, Chartwell, & a Spitfire in Central London are just some of the things that made up our memorable September 2010.

Even though the summer air show season is well behind us, we moved straight into the Battle of Britain commemorations and we’re now headlong into the winter events. September saw us holding one of our biggest and most important events in RAF Association history.

Our City of London Salute to the Battle of Britain & WWII veterans held on the 7th Sept saw 2200 people attending a service at St Paul’s in London followed by lunch at some of the Cities Great Halls. Despite the tube strikes people travelled from all over the UK and overseas to attend this tremendous event. With a beautiful replica Spitfire outside coupled with WWII rein actors the day was very emotive and a true testament to the strength and tenacity of those that served during WWII and in conflicts ever since.

September also saw the launch of the RAF Beers & Tea in commemoration of the 70th anniversary in a disused London underground station. In true wartime tradition, people wore 1940’s clothing, whilst listen to 1940’s music and eating 1940’s food, yum. The costumes were fantastic and the beer and tea went down a storm. You can purchase the tea and the beer from Sainsburys stores nationwide, with a donation from each sale coming to the RAF Association.

19/08/10

Last weekend saw us at the Eastbourne Air show, with our charity Eastbourne to Afghanistan cycle challenge. It was brilliant, six spin bikes loaned to us by RAF Benson, music turned up really loud and loads of willing volunteers helping us to reach our target of 5760k. We even had volunteers cycling into the night on Saturday, beer in hand with a lovely curry cooked by MCSU Wittering to keep them going

We beat the total and the whole weekend helped to raise over £11,000 which goes towards our Miles More Minutes campaign, helping to provide additional telephone talk time to deployed RAF personnel. I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that helped us reach our target, all the hard work really paid off. I have to say though I’m feeling a little achy still.

Now we just need to get back from Afghanistan….any volunteers?

03/08/10

It’s a very busy time for us here at CHQ, as we are right in the middle of air show season. There is a real buzz around the office and it’s all really exciting, what with our partnership with The Blades aerobatic team, and our great Eastbourne to Afghanistan cycle challenge at the Eastbourne show on 12-15 August 2010.

Eastbourne will be a fantastic weekend with all our volunteers taking turns to help us reach our target of 3,600 miles with the proceeds going towards our Miles More Minutes campaign which aims to raise money for deployed RAF troops to offer them additional telephone talk time so they can keep in touch with their families back home for longer. If you’re feeling fit and would like to get involved with the cycle challenge at Eastbourne then please do give Rachael Hunt a call on 0116 268 8777 or visit www.rafa.org.uk The Blades will also be signing autographs after their displays so if you fancy meeting them, come and visit our stand.

Bank Holiday Monday was great, hearing the troops out in Afghanistan via BFBS & BBC Radio 1. This was a fantastic idea and should be a more regular occurrence. Helping to keep troops in touch with loved ones was the initial idea behind our Miles More Minutes campaign. We are aiming to raise as much money as possible to help give the RAF out in Afghanistan even more secure free talk time so they can call home more often and for longer.