Thames Valley Air Ambulance win Carousel Buses’ Brand the Bus 2025

Thames Valley Air Ambulance has been announced as the winner of Carousel Buses’ inaugural Brand the Bus competition – scooping its first prize worth £60,000.

It will have its branding emblazoned across one of Carousel Buses’ buses for 12 months, plus radio promotion and advertising in partnership with Wycombe Sound and Wycombe Wanderers FC. 

Wycombe Sound director Colin Besley broke the news to Thames Valley Air Ambulance by making a surprise phone call live on air to its team on Thursday. 

Amanda McLean, Chief Executive Officer at Thames Valley Air Ambulance, was thrilled to win Carousel’s first Brand the Bus prize. 

Speaking live on air, Amanda said: “It’s amazing, we’re so grateful and it will make such a difference. 

“We take a lot of patients to hospital in Buckinghamshire with cardiac arrests and have found a lot of people don’t have the confidence to help with CPR. So, Brand the Bus will be a perfect way for us to share information on how to help. I can’t think of a better way to do that, it’s a perfect partnership, it’s overwhelming, thank you.” 

The runners-up will be announced live on air next week and the first runner up will now receive an enhanced package. 

Luke Marion, Managing Director of Carousel Buses, said: “A huge congratulations to everyone at Thames Valley Air Ambulance for winning our first Brand the Bus prize. 

“We received 41 excellent submissions from not-for-profits who all make a positive impact across communities we serve.  

“Thames Valley Air Ambulance’s entry resonated with our team and stood out for exceptional local relevance and strong public appeal and we’re delighted to be able to help them raise their profile further.”

Liam Gates, Managing Director of Wycombe Sound, said: “Congratulations to Thames Valley Air Ambulance and what a moment we shared breaking the exciting news to the charity live on air.

“We can't wait to announce the runners up next week. A huge well-done to every charity that entered, especially to those that made it to the top 10 from the public vote - it made judging incredibly difficult.”

Matt Cecil, Head of Media at Wycombe Wanderers said: “Congratulations to Thames Valley Air Ambulance on being selected as the very worthy winner of Carousel’s Brand The Bus campaign. As a football club, we have been indebted to the help of charity during times of medical emergencies at Adams Park, and their life-saving work across the community deserves recognition of this nature.

“We commend all charities who participated in the initiative and look forward to playing our part in celebrating Thames Valley Air Ambulance’s success by providing opportunities for them to promote their activities, events and fundraising opportunities across our stadium next season.”

Thames Valley Air Ambulance operates across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The charity provides hospital-level care by land and air 365 days a year and in 2024 responded to 3,129 separate incidents. 

The branded bus will be revealed later this year and details of Carousel Buses’ 2026 Brand the Bus competition will be released in the new year.

Carousel’s Brand the Bus initiative was inspired by the tremendous success of an equivalent competition delivered by its sister companies, Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, in Oxfordshire in recent years.