Garvagh's Ellie is Air Ambulance Young Person of the Year

Ellie Smyth, at just 11 years of age, was named Young Person of the Year.

Ellie from Garvagh, sadly lost her father in a road traffic collision in February 2019, when she was just eight years of age.

The Air Ambulance Northern Ireland team were tasked to Ellie’s dad, but sadly he could not be saved. Since then, Ellie, her older brother Harry, and their mum Caroline, have become passionate supporters of Air Ambulance NI, supporting fundraising events, volunteering and organising their own fundraisers.

Following in her older brother’s footsteps, once Ellie reached her final year at primary school, she decided she wanted to lead her own event. She decided to host a party in honour of what would have been her Dad Peter’s 50th year.

This was because ‘he loved a party’ and so ‘Ellie’s Ball’ was born. The event was a huge success and raised an amazing £16,000 for Air Ambulance NI.

This sum funded almost three days for the service, likely to help six future patients. An auction on the night raised almost £9,000 from 18 lots – a remarkable achievement for an 11-year-old!

Ellie was delighted with her award and said: ‘I was so honoured to be nominated for the Air Ambulance UK Awards. It was an amazing experience to go along, and I had so much fun.

"I am so glad I won. Air Ambulance NI is a very special charity to us, they do amazing work. We will do more fundraising to help save more people.”

Colin King from Moira was awarded Volunteer of the Year.

Colin supports the charity in a number of ways including being event photographer, designated mascot volunteer ‘Helimed Ted’, assisting at many AANI fundraising events and playing a crucial role in helping the charity secure a 3-year partnership with Translink.

AANI’s Head of Fundraising, Kerry Anderson, said: “Everyone at AANI is so proud of Ellie and Colin’s achievements. As a team we rely on the support of our community volunteers and fundraisers in delivering our events throughout the year. The commitment and dedication Ellie and Colin show is repeated across our entire team of volunteers, and we simply could not fly without them.”