“The response has been incredible”
Kirit Patel and Pensford Post Office and village shop. Kirit’s son Umang Patel, his wife Vaishali and their two sons run the village shop and Kirit was on his way to spend the summer with them when he was killed in the Air India crash in Ahmedabad (Image: The Patel Family/Google Maps)
Donations to a fundraiser set up to support the family who run a village shop and Post Office near Bristol whose father was killed in the Air India plane crash have doubled overnight as thousands have been pledged by locals.
The amount donated to the fundraiser, reported by Bristol Live on Monday, went from just over £5,000 to £10,000 by this morning (June 17), as word spread of the tragedy affecting a small village a few miles south of Bristol.
The fundraiser was set up to support the Patel family, who have flown to India in the aftermath of the plane crash that killed around 240 people. Umang, his wife Vaishali and their two sons have run the village stores and Post Office in Pensford for more than 10 years and are much-loved members of the village community.
Every year, Umang’s father Kirit came to spend the summer months in Pensford, and was a familiar face in the village. He was on his way for this summer’s trip, when tragedy struck and the plane he was travelling in crashed seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad in India.
On Sunday, one regular customer at the store, Katrina Southgate, set up a fundraiser so that villagers could help with the sudden unexpected costs of such a tragedy, including travelling to India.
Katrina set the fundraiser target at £2,000 but within hours into Monday, it sailed past £5,000 as scores of villagers donated. Now, the fundraiser has reached just short of £10,000 within 48 hours of being set up, as donations flood in from the Pensford area and further afield.
“The response has been incredible and, in the majority, it is the local and surrounding community who are giving,” said Katrina.
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“My children go to Pensford Primary School and we love the family and the Post Office and shop, so after chatting with a few others about how we could show our support, I set up the GoFundMe page. The response just shows how much the family means to people in Pensford,” she added.
Kirit Patel, who was killed in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, in June 2025. He was on his way to spend the summer with his son Umang, daughter-in-law Vaishali and their two sons, who run the vllage stores and Post Office in Pensford, near Bristol(Image: The Patel family)
“Kirit was a regular face around the village as he spent the summers with the family. They are a core part of the Pensford community. Villagers speak about their kindness and willingness to help others, and there is no greater reward after a hard day at school than a trip to the Post Office,” she added, urging villagers to donate.
“So let’s pay it back and show them how much the community supports them at this time,” she said.