A Simple Thank You.

It began with an idea, “why don’t we fly our beloved blue Spitfire PL983 ‘L’ around the local villages for the #clapforourcarers this evening? … We can prepare the aeroplane as a household and it could really lift the community spirit”.  Well, we did, and the response was utterly overwhelming.  Being around the Spitfires so regularity can make it all too easy to take for granted just what the sight and sound of this machine means to so many people.  We just weren’t prepared for the emotionally charged messages of support and gratitude that we received for that first flight, it was what paved the way for the development of the NHS Spitfire project. 

The Thursday flights soon became a bit of a tradition in our local area, and as we approached the tenth week we decided to add our own thank you message to the bottom of those iconic elliptical wings.  That evening we set off again, this time with the ‘THANK U NHS’ emblazoned across the underside of the aircraft.  

Saying and receiving a thank you is one of the simplest pleasures enjoyed by humankind, it takes the smallest of efforts but can carry vast meaning.  So, how could we give people an opportunity to join us in saying thank you to the NHS whilst also giving them the opportunity to thank someone closer to home… well, this is what we’ve come up with…

We are attempting to completely cover our photo-reconnaissance blue Spitfire PL983 ‘L’ in hand written names! For us to accomplish this we need your support, as the names we are hand writing onto the Spitfire will be nominated by you! It can be your own name or that of a loved one, a member of your family, a friend or a kind neighbour.  You can now become a part of the NHS Spitfires story by nominating a name to be hand written on the aircraft’s airframe.

Each name nominated will also help us together as a nation say thank you to the NHS by contributing to the NHS Charities Together (Registered Charity Number 1186569)  To nominate a name you simply need to visit our JustGiving page and donate a minimum of £10 along with the name of the person and the reason for the nomination in the donation comment (instructions for donations included in JustGiving page story).  We will be adding the names throughout the Summer and sharing updates via our social media pages as the blue outer-surface of the Spitfire slowly begins to be covered in the names of our nations local heroes!  

A modern day Spitfire fund, with a twist, set up in order to support our incredible NHS.

The Power of a Name

carried upon

The Wings of a Spitfire

Please click on the images below to enlarge them so that you can begin searching for your nominated names. As the NHS Spitfire is constantly evolving, with new names being added all the time, we will continue to update these images whenever a substantial new section of names has been hand-written onto the aircraft.

The Images below are optimised for desktop or large screen devices. If you would like to download the full set of name images then feel free to click the link to our WeTransfer below.

From our own experience of name foraging we have found that they often have a habit of hiding in plain sight so best of luck and happy searching!

Most recent names added to NHS Spitfire

Lastly… A Collection of Thank You’s From Us

John B, Tom T & ATC and Fire Crews at IWM Duxford

For throwing your unwavering support at the project from its inception. You all know the parts you played and we are extremely grateful to have had you along with us throughout the endeavour. Here’s to many more exciting projects out of our mutual home of Duxford Airfield in the future!

Lucy at Lephyr

Lucy’s roll in this project was monumental. Every radio interview, every piece of coverage in regional press, every article in national newspapers or edit on regional / national televised news, Lucy was behind it. The truly remarkable thing though is that her support didn’t end there, she also helped research the routes, liaised with the NHS Trusts to compile hospital routes and acted as a point of contact for any questions coming in from hospital staff and press around the country. 1000’s of emails, 100’s of phone calls and 10’s of press releases later, and we can very safely say that the NHS Spitfire Project wouldn’t have gotten of the ground without her.

Zak at RAD SEO

With the way the world spins nowadays, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone to hear just how important SEO and Social Media are to a charity fundraising project such as this one. However, we believe most people would still be massively surprised at just how much work is involved in getting your message to stand out from all the other messaging floating atop the social media ocean! Thanks to Zak’s volunteered expertise, NHS Spitfire route maps were visible to people in the regions they were relevant too, people could find links to the JustGiving page and the entire project just had an online ‘presence’ which we simply wouldn’t have achieved without having him & the RAD team onboard.

Ruskin at Rivers Rush

We knew that emotive visual content was going to be vital in capturing the nation’s imagination during this project and when Ruskin offered to come in and voluntarily put together a video for us, we were blown away. The release of the video, first played on Sky Sports 1 & Sky Sports Cricket to open the England vs Pakistan Test Series was a milestone moment in the campaign and brought about our most successful week of donations! The tone of the Ruskins video was spot on and really took the message of the NHS Spitfire further afield than ever before, we are certainly looking forward to making many more videos with Ruskin in the future.

Hayden & Kip at POSCA UK

For supplying every single white Posca paint pen at no charge. Plus all the support for name ‘aftercare’. It’s the details like this that really helped make the project financially viable for us and the pens have done an amazing job at clinging on. Let’s not forget… The NHS Spitfire has flown through rain, it’s flown through cloud, it’s slept under the stars on airfields away from home and baked in the mid summer sun but those names are still very much there, and looking fantastic.

Ed at Salt-Street

Ed is a dear friend of ARCo’s and has always had our back in times of need, usually dropping everything in his path to come and save the day… this time was no different! The NHS Spitfire Project had just received the green light, the weekend one was fast approaching and we were scheduled to overfly Addenbrooke’s Hospital to mark the 72nd Birthday of the NHS on Sunday 5 July. Suddenly the phones began ringing off the hooks with journalists from national news channels asking if we would be carrying cameras on the Spitfire and at this stage, it was very safe to say that we were woefully unprepared for that! Enter Ed… unquestionably dropping everything he had on that weekend to load up his van with camera kit and drive down from the Peak District just to help us out for the day… Asking for nothing in return… it’s friends like this that really make the difference in those moments and the footage he captured was the difference between starting the project off with national press coverage over nothing but whispers. Ed, you are a simply a legend!

Charlie T

Charlie, we know you’ll never accept that our thanks is necessary, but without your support neither the Silverstone Formula 1 or the England vs Pakistan Test Series fly pasts would have been possible. Both of these events generated massive exposure for the project and become some of the highest single days of donations for NHS Charities Together. You were a pivotal part of the success of last summer and we are very proud to have had you in the NHS Spitfire camp.

Hayward Aviation

For always taking that extra step to meet our often complex and out of the ordinary needs… As well as for the support you have constantly provided us, especially during the NHS Spitfire Project’s hospital routes around the UK.

Our ARCo Team

Once again you stepped up to the mark and surpassed all expectations… Hours of time volunteered around your usual working days, last minute weekend call ups to get ‘L’ prepped for hospital routes, and meticulously going through the thousands of names from the JustGiving page ready to list for Amanda to hand write onto the NHS Spitfire. This was a massive team effort, and we are unbelievably proud of the team we have built over the years.

ATC Teams across the UK

This one is something that is easy to overlook, but honestly, not all hospitals in the UK are that easy to get to without being in a controllers ATZ. From finding us windows in arriving traffic and advising us on bad weather to allowing approach and go-arounds of their runways, ATC teams up and down the UK bent over backwards to accommodate some very unusual request and often difficult requests. Although there will always be some hospitals that we just can’t reach due to the built up nature of their locations, the UK’s ATC teams of men and women allowed us to reach many more than was initially thought possible.

Everyone else not mentioned above who played a part

We are bound to have missed some key individuals from the above, as there were so many of you who came forward in support of the NHS Spitfire Project. It was heartwarming for us to see the levels that so many of you went to in order to help and please know that we appreciate that massively, you all know who you are, and the project wouldn’t have been the same without you.