Three leading air ambulance charities have won the Excellence in Collaboration category at the UK Excellence Awards 2026, recognising their pioneering work to share knowledge, strengthen services and help save lives across the East of England.
The award win celebrates the groundbreaking Sharing for Success partnership between Magpas Air Ambulance, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance and East Anglian Air Ambulance, which brings together the charities’ fundraising and marketing teams to share expertise and identify ways to work more closely.
The award was presented at Wembley Stadium on 8 October. The charities were shortlisted alongside organisations including Dubai Police HQ, National Express Bus, Tesco Business Solutions, VINCI Construction UK, Virgin Media O2 and O2 Business. Their win is an extraordinary achievement and shows the impact collaboration within the charity sector can have.
Together, the three charities operate five helicopters and a fleet of critical care emergency response vehicles, providing advanced care to thousands of people each year experiencing life-threatening emergencies across the East of England.
Rather than working in isolation, the charities are committed to learning from one another, improving how they operate and helping patients and communities benefit from their combined experience and expertise. Sharing for Success demonstrates how charities can achieve more by combining their knowledge and experience while retaining their independence and vital connections with the communities they serve.
For Magpas Air Ambulance, the award recognises not only a successful partnership but an approach that puts patients first and strives for continuous improvement in pre-hospital emergency care.
Daryl Brown MBE DL, Chief Executive Officer of Magpas Air Ambulance, and the charity’s Director of Income and Engagement, Lucy Chapman, attended the ceremony. They celebrated the win in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Patron of the British Quality Foundation and Royal Patron of Magpas Air Ambulance.
Daryl Brown said, “This is an incredibly proud moment for Magpas Air Ambulance and our colleagues at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance and East Anglian Air Ambulance.
“To be recognised alongside, and ultimately win against, some of the biggest and most respected organisations in the world is a remarkable achievement. It demonstrates that the charity sector can lead the way when it comes to collaboration and delivering meaningful change.
“It was particularly special to celebrate this achievement in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, who is both Patron of the British Quality Foundation and our own Royal Patron at Magpas Air Ambulance.”
Lucy Chapman, Director of Income and Engagement, added: “Between our three charities, we operate five helicopters and a fleet of emergency response vehicles, providing lifesaving critical care to people when they need it most. Although we remain three independent charities, we share a common purpose, and that is to give patients the very best possible chance of survival and recovery.
“Sharing for Success is built on a simple but powerful principle: when we work together, share what we know and learn from each other, we become stronger and the people who need us benefit.”
Daryl concluded, “This award belongs to the extraordinary teams across all three charities who have embraced collaboration, challenged traditional ways of working and shown what can be achieved when we put our patients and supporters before organisational boundaries. I couldn’t be prouder."
