A WOMAN is tackling her first marathon next year to raise money for the air ambulance services that helped her family after they were seriously injured in a head-on collision.
Lisa McCrickard, 41, from Egremont, is taking part in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday 14 April and hoping to raise £4,000 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) and North West Air Ambulance (NWAA).
The two air ambulance charities came to the aid of Lisa’s husband, Ian McCrickard, 51, and their sons Jack, 14, and Harry, 11, after they were involved in a road traffic collision on the A5086 near Deanscales in October 2018.
Describing what happened that day, Mr McCrickard said: “Another car came round the corner on the wrong side of the road and head on into us. It was that fast, I couldn’t react.”
The father-of-four was trapped in the car for an hour and 45 minutes, and his son Jack also needed to be released from the wreckage.
While Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service had started to cut the father and son out of the car, both aircraft from GNAAS had flown to the scene and requested assistance from NWAA.
GNAAS doctor John Ferris said: “On scene we were able to provide advanced pain relief to Ian and his children, who had a number of serious fractures and some internal bleeding. By giving them some strong medication, this allowed us to remove them from the car they were in and prepare them for the flight before we took everybody to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.”
Harry had sustained a broken shoulder, a fractured pelvis and a bleed to his spleen, while his brother Jack had two broken wrists, snapped his femur, a bruised lung, and quite a lot of damage to his teeth.
Their father, Mr McCrickard, had broken both of his legs, his left knee, a big toe, a finger on his left hand, and sustained lacerations to his hand and arm.
The brothers left hospital after three weeks and returned home to recover, while their dad was discharged a week after them.
Since the incident, the McCrickard family have reunited with one of GNAAS’ critical care teams who helped them and have raised thousands of pounds for the charity.
Earlier this year, Jack climbed Scafell Pike with his friends and family to support GNAAS, and now his mother has decided to run the Manchester Marathon in 2024 to raise even more money for the air ambulance service.
She said: “I decided to do Manchester because a lot of people have said it’s a good course to run. I’ve never done a full marathon before, but I’ve done a few half marathons, including Liverpool, Carlisle and the Great North Run.
“It’s so important to keep supporting the air ambulance because still to this day I can’t believe they are charity funded. You never know when you might need them.”
To support Mrs Crickard, visit her JustGiving page here.
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