Air Ambulance charity fundraising appeal

Air Ambulance bosses are looking for help to raise cash to help meet a surge in demand for the lifesaving service.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) has been called out to 45 incidents over the past two weekends.

Over the same two weekends last year – when Covid restrictions remained heightened - the charity respond to 17 incidents.

Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, said: “Demand is much higher than last year and, at times, has been higher than ever before.

“The problem is that although demand is now back to normal levels, our fundraising remains lower than where we need it to be.”

Twenty seven of the callouts were in the North East, with 15 in Cumbria and three in North Yorkshire.

Cancelled fund-raising events during the pandemic mean the charity estimates it is losing more than £100,000 a month – and it is now looking for more people to sell its fund-raising raffle tickets.

Mr Mawson added: “It's great to see that our teams have been there to respond to so many critical incidents but the more we are calledout, the greater our costs.”

Last year the charity raised £180,000 through its annual raffle.

Volunteers can receive tickets through the post or be given a digital code to share among friends and family.

Tickets will be £1 each – with a £10,000 top prize is on offer.

To sign up to receive your tickets ahead of launch, go to www.gnaas.com/raffle or call 01325 487 263 to register an interest.