Mascot Wilber meets inspiring young swimmer

YOUNG fundraiser Ciaran Hanks, of Melksham, had two reasons to celebrate visiting Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA).

As well as raising £705 for the charity by completing a swimming challenge, ten-year-old Ciaran won the competition to name WAA’s paramedic bear mascot.

Ciaran’s winning suggestion of Wilber is an abbreviation of the words ‘Wiltshire’ and ‘bear’ and he met Wilber for the first time when he visited WAA’s operations centre in Devizes on Monday 24th October.

Ciaran said, “I was excited when I heard I had won the competition to name Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s mascot. I enjoyed meeting Wilber – he’s funny!”

The Aloeric Primary School pupil has been busy raising money for WAA. In the summer holidays he set himself the challenge of swimming the equivalent of the English Channel (35.18km or 1,400 lengths) during sessions at Trowbridge Swimming Pool and Melksham Blue Pool.

He completed the swim earlier this month and Wiltshire’s Paralympic swimmer Stephanie Millward joined him for the final few lengths.

Ciaran’s mum, Caroline Hanks, said: “Ciaran chose Wiltshire Air Ambulance because it is a local charity and he knows that anyone might need its services. We have seen the helicopter taking off and landing at incidents so it brings it home to us just how important it is in helping to save lives.

“My husband, Jason, and I are so proud of Ciaran. He came up with the idea of swimming the equivalent of the English Channel to raise money. Six months ago he was struggling to complete a length without stopping because of his asthma, but through his perseverance and dedication he is now a different swimmer.  We’d like to thank everyone who supported and donated to Ciaran’s challenge.”

Rebecca de la Bedoyere, senior fundraising manager at WAA, said, “Ciaran’s swimming achievement is inspiring and we’d like to thank him for choosing to raise funds for Wiltshire Air Ambulance. The money he raised will help keep our helicopter and crew flying and saving lives.

“Ciaran’s other achievement was naming our mascot. We had a huge response to our social media competition to find a name for our mascot, with some great suggestions. We were spoilt for choice, but we thought combining Wiltshire and bear to form Wilber was especially creative.

“Since Wilber joined us in September he has been busy attending fundraising events all over the county and helping us spread the word about the lifesaving work we do. He is proving very popular with young and old alike, with lots of people wanting to have their photo taken with him.”

Wilber is sponsored by Soft Options Water Softeners Ltd, a family run business based in Burbage near Marlborough. Soft Options supply and install water softening and drinking water filtration/purification products for both domestic and commercial use.