I’m a Celebrity winner Carl Fogarty and Top Gear star Richard Hammond led from the front today after joining thousands of other bikers at a charity rally.

Fogarty, riding a Ducati scrambler, and Hammond, astride a “boring” BMW R1200RT, both praised the work of the Midlands Air Ambulance before setting off on the charity’s fifth annual Bike4Life fund-raiser.

About 3,500 bikers turned out in the sunshine to join the 23-mile ride-out from Shrewsbury to the Bike4Life festival at RAF Cosford.

As well as raising much-needed money for the Midlands Air Ambulance, Bike4Life also promotes road safety.

Speaking before the start of the event at a park-and-ride site in Shrewsbury, Hammond said: “I love anything that brings together the biking community anyway, and particularly if it brings it together with an eye to the services that we need, like air ambulances.

“We’re all here for the same reason. We love bikes and we’re aware of the fact that like any other pastime, you can get injured and when that happens the services of the air ambulance can be the difference between life and death.

Carl Fogarty and Richard Hammond at a charity rally.
Carl Fogarty and Richard Hammond (Matthew Cooper/PA)

“So this is showing support for the work that they do for us and for everybody else.”

Echoing Hammond’s comments, former World Superbike champion Fogarty told reporters gathered in Meole Brace, Shrewsbury: “I think I have used it quite a few times over the years.

“It’s a service we definitely need.

“I think it costs about £6 million a year to keep one of these things in the air.”