The British Lung Foundation - Our First Chosen Charity

We Launched Our First Chosen Charity Partnership With A Big Breakfast

Eat a breakfast sandwich to raise money for charity? Pass the ketchup: we’re in!

Sausage and bacon butties were the order of the day here at Virgin Balloon Flights HQ, as we officially launched our charity partnership with the British Lung Foundation with a fundraising ‘Big Breakfast’.

We’ve always been a charitable bunch here at Virgin Balloon Flights and over the years have helped raise thousands of pounds for a variety of good causes, from Children in Need to the British Heart Foundation.

In 2014 we ran a “Breathtaking Moments” Twitter campaign with the British Lung Foundation (BLF), raising £5,000 for the charity in just one month.

This success and the natural synergy between our two organisations - both of us are known for our lovely red balloons - resulted in us officially naming the BLF as our chosen charity until the end of 2016.

We have high hopes for our new partnership and as a result, Virgin Balloon Flights has pledged to help raise £27,500 for the charity over the next year.

On Friday 20^th November 2015, we held a BLF Big Breakfast right here in the office, with freshly cooked bacon and sausage sandwiches served up to staff in exchange for a donation to the charity.

We also popped into our neighbouring businesses to sell homemade breakfast muffins and banana bread to those unable to leave their desks to join us, which went down a treat with barely a crumb left.

Then there was the staff omelette challenge to see who could cook up an (edible!) eggy delight them in the quickest time.

Our customer service supervisor Shawn was crowned champion for his – ahem – efforts, with an omelette cooked and dished up in just one minute and 29 seconds.

In total, we raised £210 for the British Lung Foundation.

A big thank you to all the lovely Telford businesses around us that supported the event by buying cakes, including CDK Global, RBS, RSM, Terry Jones Solicitors, Dyke Yaxley, Tradedoubler and MSF Fitness.

Kenneth Karlstrom, chief pilot and CEO of Virgin Balloon Flights, said he was delighted to be working alongside the BLF once more.

“The Breathtaking Moments Twitter campaign was such a success that we felt there was much more we could do with the BLF to raise both funding for and awareness of lung disease,” he said.

“The next year and a half of fundraising will be a collaboration between The British Lung Foundation and our head office staff, pilots, passengers and customers and we are confident of hitting our £27,500 target.”

Further fundraising events and offers are already planned for 2016, including an automatic donation of 1% from each sale of our Birthday and Adventure Gift Packages directly to the British Lung Foundation.

Jane Morris, Corporate Partnerships Manager for the British Lung Foundation, said the charity was delighted to have been chosen as Virgin Balloon Flights’ first charity of the year.

“Lung disease affects one in five people in the UK, and this kind of support can enable us to help as many of them as possible,” she said.

“Now, anyone enjoying breath-taking views with Virgin Balloons will also be helping people affected by lung disease to breathe more easily – something we hope will make the whole experience extra special.”

We’ll be keeping you posted on how our fundraising is going with regular updates on the blog and across our social media channels, so stay tuned for more news- including how YOU can help.