It's part of fundraising efforts by Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex.
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00:00Earlier this month Air Ambulance charity Kent Surrey Sussex launched a fundraiser to buy
00:05their second helicopter, which they currently lease.
00:09The charity says buying the helicopter will allow its pilots and paramedics to fly for
00:13longer and potentially save more lives.
00:17As you can hear from the noise this Air Ambulance has just landed outside the KSS headquarters
00:23in Rochester and what a sight it is.
00:27Now a new competition will allow schools and youth groups across Kent to name the helicopter
00:33as part of the Buy It For Life campaign.
00:36It's really important that everyone in the community knows what we do and understands
00:39the important role that we play and we want to get the community involved so school children
00:44are really important and there's a big programme that we have planned to help educate and train
00:48children so that they know what to do if they come across someone who's experienced a medical
00:53emergency and it's also a chance for schools to feel very much a part of every life-saving
00:58mission that we fly to save a patient's life.
01:02Schools will have until the 24th of May to submit their entries, with the winners being
01:06announced in June.
01:08So what names have the children landed on?
01:10I think it might be Hilary the Helicopter, maybe.
01:13Why Hilary?
01:14I don't know, I just like that name, somehow, Hilary the Helicopter, it's a period of alliteration.
01:22So, we said Sana, because in Latin it means to heal or hail.
01:27I was thinking Lifty the Lifesaver, because like alliteration, and also it lives from
01:35the ground.
01:36What about you?
01:37I was thinking Hector.
01:39I came up with Hilary because I've just always loved that name, and it rhymes.
01:43And I came up with Lifty the Lifesaver because I love the name Lifty and this really is a
01:48lifesaver, everything that it does.
01:50It was great to see the kids, they were very excited to see the aircraft, they had some
01:54really creative names, I'm not going to pick one but I do have my favourite, but it was
02:00really entertaining, it was really good fun to have them here.
02:02Right, I know you're not a child anymore, but if you were going to name the aircraft,
02:06what would your name be?
02:08Oh, I'd have to stick with something from Thomas the Tank Engine, Harold the Helicopter.
02:14Yeah, as you can see, the enthusiasm of the children to get involved in this project is
02:18amazing.
02:19But what we really need is everyone to get involved, it's essential for people's survival
02:25in the future.
02:26It's really important because they obviously know what happened to me three years ago,
02:30so I obviously was a patient of the Air Ambulance, and therefore it's just putting a bit of backstory
02:35and a bit of thank you back to the Air Ambulance to say for everything they did for me.
02:39We can come along and help them.
02:40With half a million raised so far and half a million still to go, it's really up in the
02:45air whether KSS will raise the money they need.
02:49Oliver Leeds of the South reporting for KNTV.