Introducing Our Charity of the Year: KSS Air Ambulance

Introduction

The Helicopter You've Probably Seen

If you live or work anywhere between Crawley and the coast, you have almost certainly looked up at some point and watched a red and yellow helicopter cross the sky. It is a familiar enough sight that most people barely stop walking.

What it represents is less familiar. That aircraft is not part of the NHS fleet. It is run by a charity, paid for by the public, and it is on its way to someone having the worst day of their life.

Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex, known to almost everyone as KSS, is the organisation we have chosen to support throughout 2026. Before asking anyone to donate, it seems only fair to explain what they are donating to.

Who They Are

Thirty Five Years, Three Counties, One Job

KSS began life in 1989 as the South East Thames Air Ambulance, covering Kent alone. Its first patient was flown to hospital two days before Christmas that year. In 2007 the service expanded to take in Surrey and Sussex, and the charity became what it is today: a single organisation responsible for critical care across all three counties and a population of around 4.8 million people.

It is a registered charity, number 1021367. It operates from Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey and a second base at Rochester Airport in Kent, flying Leonardo AW169 helicopters alongside a fleet of rapid response cars that take the crews out by road when weather grounds the aircraft.

In 2013 KSS became the first air ambulance in the UK to operate around the clock. Emergencies do not keep office hours, and since then neither has the service.

How It's Funded

£45,000 a Day, Raised From Scratch

KSS is funded almost entirely by voluntary donations rather than by central government. Every day the service operates costs more than £45,000, which works out at somewhere north of £16 million a year, and that money has to be found again every single year.

It comes from fundraising pages, regular givers, lottery tickets, collection tins, gifts left in wills, community events and corporate partnerships. It is supported by a staff team and more than 150 volunteers across the region, and the vast majority of what is raised goes directly into delivering the service rather than into running the charity.

Why It Matters to Us

A Local Charity, In Every Sense

We chose KSS partly because of what they do and partly because of where they do it.

CRE Group sits in Crawley, and Crawley sits squarely inside the area KSS covers. So do the roads our team uses every day and the routes our clients drive between offices, viewings and valuations. The M23, the A23, the rural lanes running out towards the Surrey and Sussex border. These are exactly the places a critical care team gets called to.

That is an uncomfortable thing to think about, and it is also the entire point. Nobody plans to need an air ambulance. The service is there for the days that arrive without any warning at all, and it only exists because it was funded long before those days came.

Supporting a local charity is not an abstract gesture when the charity in question already covers the ground you stand on.

Support the Cause

Donate

Our KSS JustGiving fundraising page from the relay day is still open.

• Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (our Charity of the Year): justgiving.com/page/cregroup

Every pound raised for KSS goes towards the £45,000 it costs to keep the service flying for a single day. Follow the blog through the year to see where our total gets to, and thank you to everyone who ran, threw, cheered, sweated and gave on 31 July.

Read how we chose KSS in our charity relay race.