Nine-foot chocolate helicopter to raise funds for Lincolnshire air ambulance

A Lincolnshire chocolatier spent two days making a nine-foot long chocolate helicopter to raise money for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance.

Jan Hansen is the owner of Hansen’s Chocolate House on Market Place in Folkingham and spent the entire weekend hand crafting the helicopter using layers of Belgian chocolate.

The impressive 120kg of chocolate — the equivalent of 1,200 regular chocolate bars — was constructed using an iron frame in the shape of an egg. Additional parts were added to create the helicopter rotors and tail.

The chocolate helicopter is currently on display in the conservatory of his shop, so that visitors can see the creation through the window.

People can also make a donation to Jan’s fundraiser here to help keep the air ambulance flying.

The Choco-copter was created to help raise money for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance.

The back of the chocolate helicopter.

Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance has lost more than £1 million in projected income due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as having to close its charity shops and cancel fundraising activities.

As income went down, the crew on board the helicopter and Critical Care Cars have continued to respond to incidents and attended 1,167 life-threatening emergencies throughout 2020.

Jan wants to help keep the air ambulance flying by raising money for the charity.

Jan, who has been in the chocolate business for over three decades, wanted to help support the charity.

He said: “We often hear the air ambulance fly overhead as we’re based off the A15. They do such a fantastic job and thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me to use my chocolate-making skills to help them raise some money.

“We’ve used a seven-foot egg frame to form the body of the helicopter. After adding the tail at the back, the finished product is around nine-feet long. We’ve used approximately 120kg of chocolate to build the helicopter.

“It’s been built in the air-conditioned conservatory at the back of the shop so that customers can view the helicopter through the window.

“While raising money for the air ambulance, we hope that this can help spread a bit of joy after what has been a very challenging year for everyone.”

Additional parts were added to create the helicopter rotors and tail.

Kelly Geoghegan, Fundraising Events Coordinator at Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Jan for using his tremendous talent to create his choco-copter on behalf of our charity. We’re hoping his amazing efforts will help raise much needed funds for LNAA after a challenging year.

“While we work closely with our fantastic NHS, we don’t receive any funding. We rely entirely on donations from generous members of our communities to keep our helicopter flying and Critical Care Cars on the road.

“We know that Jan’s chocolate helicopter will bring a smile to so many people and is a fantastic way to help raise funds that could potentially save lives.”