The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) are halfway to reaching their target of raising £100,000 from its 20th birthday raffle, with a month left until the draw date.
This year GNAAS celebrated 20 years of providing life-saving critical care across the region including the North East, North Yorkshire, and Cumbria.
Some of the charity’s achievements over 20 years include introducing doctors on board their aircraft and rapid response vehicles, running successful pre-hospital training courses for clinicians from around the world, delivering blood transfusions to more than 500 patients, performing successful roadside open chest surgeries and most importantly being there for people during their darkest hour.
A future goal of the charity is to provide a 24/7 service which would mean their critical care team could respond to hundreds more patients every year, but this can only be achieved by raising the required additional funding.
Tickets cost £1 each and there’s a chance to win the top prize of £10,000. There are other fantastic prizes on offer too.
Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, said: “It’s fantastic that we’re halfway to our fundraising target, and we’re very grateful for everyone who has bought or sold tickets, but there’s still a long way to go to reach £100,000.
“As a charity, we rely on public donations to survive and need to raise approximately £6.7m this year to remain operational in the region.
“Every time someone purchases a raffle ticket, they are contributing towards the life-saving care that our team deliver to the most critically ill or injured people across the region.”
Last year the charity’s critical care teams based at Eaglescliffe and Penrith responded to 1,620 incidents, which was one of their busiest years on record. With the relaxation of restrictions related to covid this year, the number of incidents attended in 2022 is expected to be higher.
Andy added: “We understand that this year, and the culmination of the past few years, have made a huge impact on people’s finances. We have seen this impact in the reality of our ticket sales for the raffle, compared to previous years. We know times are hard but if you value the work of our charity, please consider buying a ticket to support your local air ambulance.
“If we reach our target of raising £100,000 from the raffle, this will cover the cost of around 20 missions, which is potentially 20 people’s lives saved, and many families kept together as a result.”
To help GNAAS reach this target and be in with a chance of winning the top prize, buy your raffle tickets here: https://gna.as/2022raffle or call 01325 487 263.
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