I work near Leeds General Infirmary and so often see the air ambulances flying near by, bringing in those who need urgent medical care. Whenever I see one of the yellow helicopters, it always makes me feel really thankful that my close family and friends and I have never needed to use one.

As it’s such an important charity, I wanted to feature it on the blog to help try and raise some more awareness about the work it does and the support it needs. I got in touch with the team at Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) and asked them for 10 facts about the charity. Here they are:

  1. YAA is an independent charity which needs to raise £12,000 every single day to keep both of Yorkshire’s air ambulances in the air and maintained. This is equivalent to £4.4million each year.
  2. The YAA provides a lifesaving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across 4 million acres of Yorkshire.
  3. Both Air Ambulances have recently been replaced by two new state-of- the-art Airbus H145 helicopters – G-YAAC and G-YOAA.
  4. The Yorkshire Air Ambulances are based from Airbases in Nostell Priory, Wakefield and RAF Airbase Topcliffe.
  5. The service is operational seven days a week, 365 days a year.
  6. Patients are transferred to the nearest major trauma centre, flying at speeds of up to 160mph.
  7. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance paramedics are seconded by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
  8. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance relies solely on the generosity of individuals and organisations to help save lives across the Yorkshire region.
  9. The YAA currently attend over 1,000 missions a year, an average of 3 incidents every single day.
  10. To date over 7,000 patients have been carried to relevant treatment centres, often for life-saving treatment.

 

I play the Yorkshire Air Ambulance lottery every month which is a great way of donating but also hopefully winning something too! You can find out about ways to make a single or regular donation on their website, as well as how to get involved with their events.

You can follow the YAA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and visit their website to find out more about their life saving service.

 

All photos on this blog post were provided by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity.