Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance picked as Rumwell Farm Shop’s 2025 Charity of The Year

(L-R) Rumwell Farm Shop Partner Anne Mitchell, Rumwell Farm Shop General Manager Chris O’Connor, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Unit Chief Pilot Mario Carretta, Rumwell Farm Shop Partner Sophie Mitchell and Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Operations Manager Paul Owen

THE TEAM at a multi-award-winning Somerset Farm Shop has picked Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance as its Charity of The Year for 2025 (November 2024).

Rumwell Farm Shop will be supporting the organisation next year through various fundraising and awareness generating activities.

Anne Mitchell, Partner at the Farm Shop, which is located on the A38 between Taunton and Wellington, explains: “Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance does amazing lifesaving work and is often the emergency service relied on by farmers in our community, like our farm team and the producers we use, who have serious life-threatening accidents or episodes in remote or hard to reach locations and need urgent assistance.

“Throughout the year we’ll be donating 10p from the sale of every half dozen box of our large eggs to the charity and also 10p from every bag of our potatoes. Plus, we’ll be hosting some fundraising events during the year. We hope to raise at least £3,000 for the organisation in 2025.”

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance provides lifesaving, pre-hospital critical care, to patients in need.

Its team of highly skilled pilots, critical care practitioners, nurses, and doctors are operational for 19 hours a day, 365 days a year; together they work tirelessly to save lives in our area.

The service is 95% funded by charitable giving, including events like our quizzes. Last year, it was tasked to 2,909 incidents: with each mission costing approximately £3,500.

Charlotte Humber, Supporter Engagement Officer for Somerset from Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, says: “It’s wonderful to have been selected by Rumwell Farm Shop as their Charity of the Year for 2025. The next 12 months are going to be very special for us, as we’re also celebrating our 25th anniversary, so we’re thrilled to be partnering with Rumwell in the same year. Our service came online at 8am on March 21, 2000; 52 minutes later we were tasked to our first mission.

“This partnership with Rumwell Farm Shop represents a great opportunity for us to raise invaluable funds while also generating awareness of the lifesaving work that we do.”