Riding for Ray team hands over more than £10,000

The group of friends and relatives had raised 20 times their target for completing the Riding for Ray challenge, a 120-mile round trip in eight hours.

Ray Yeo, of Sea Lane, Goring, died in February after he fell from a ladder while helping a neighbour put up a car port.

He was flown to the specialist neurological unit at St George’s Hospital in London but he could not be saved, leaving his wife Jill and their children Sean, Stephen and Sarah.

Friends Steve Dunlop and Jason Leith, along with Ray’s sons, decided to raise funds for the charity helicopter by cycling from the family home to St George’s and back.

They raised £10,486, which they handed over to air ambulance paramedic Gary Wareham during a visit to the helicopter base on Saturday.

Steve, 46, of The Haven, Littlehampton, said: “It was a pleasure to meet the crew of the air ambulance and present our cheque. The pilot, doctor and paramedic took time to explain to us their roles, which was very interesting.

“It was an emotional visit as we all remembered why we were there, although I think Ray would be so very proud and amazed at what was raised in his memory.

“Ray was one of those larger-than-life characters. He would do anything for anybody and always had a smile on his face.”

Each air ambulance callout costs about £2,500, so the money could potentially save four lives.

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