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Around Town Meets...
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
 Since its formation in 2000, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance has rescued over 2,500 people in lifesaving air missions across the county. Around Town meets the team behind the distinctive yellow flying ambulance and find out more about the day to day running of this essential emergency service.
Most people will have either seen the distinctive yellow Yorkshire Air Ambulance flying overhead at some point, or certainly heard about the excellent work it does in saving lives.
The work of the flying ambulance was highlighted more recently when TV’s Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was airlifted to hospital in Leeds, following a dramatic high speed jet powered car crash.
Indeed an appeal by the family of the injured presenter led to a flood of donations to the air ambulance which flew him to hospital. The incident, which happened at an airfield in York, trust the Yorkshire Air Ambulance into the national spotlight and did much to raise its profile as a much needed service.
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 Thankfully Mr Hammond made an excellent recovery and is now back on TV regularly presenting Top Gear.
He is however just one of hundreds of people who have been airlifted to hospital following a major trauma in their lives.
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a life saving rapid response emergency service to around five million people across Yorkshire. The helicopters fly seven days a week, 365 days a year and cover a vast landscape that includes motorways, large cities and also rural and isolated locations and communities.
To keep providing this life saving service, the charity needs to raise £7,200 per day to ensure both of Yorkshire Air Ambulances are maintained and in the air.
The generosity of local people is the lifeblood of the charity and without it, the service could not be maintained.
Abby McClymont, YAA’s marketing and communications coordinator, said: “The charity was set up in 2000 and added a second air ambulance in October 2007. It is one of the only Dedicated Air Desks in the UK. With the addition of the Air Ways Communications Systems, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance has developed into a sophisticated emergency service that provides state-of-the-art emergency medical care across Yorkshire.
“Swift medical interventions provided by air ambulance crews have a major impact on a patient’s chance of survival and subsequent quality of life.
“Both of Yorkshire’s air ambulances are MD902 Explorers and have state-of-the-art medical and helicopter specifications. The first air ambulance, which is based at Leeds Bradford International Airport is known as G-SASH and the second, based at the Sheffield City Heliport, is known as G-CEMS.
Both helicopters can reach speeds of up to 145 mph and together cover the whole of the Yorkshire region.”
The county’s topography is varied and often difficult including remote and rural areas. The fast medical response that the air ambulance provides is vital to a patient who has received major trauma, especially those with head and spinal injuries. The air ambulance obviously avoids traffic congestion and uneven road surfaces, and gets straight to hospital in the quickest possible time.
On average, when a patient has been received by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, they will only be about 10 minutes from the nearest hospital and 15 minutes from the most relevant hospital. In many cases, this can save people’s lives.
Players from Huddersfield Town Football Club are about to play a crucial role in raising the profile of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The new ‘Keep It Up’ campaign is an exclusive and pioneering partnership between the club and the YAA.
It includes a unique fundraising campaign – the likes of which have never been since before in the Football League – and HTAFC working to develop a new sustainable regular income for the YAA.
For every £1 raised throughout the campaign, 50p will be donated to the YAA and the other 50p to the HTAFC Youth Academy. Various fundraising events will be held during the forthcoming football season.
This ground-breaking campaign means that Huddersfield Town will be one of only a handful of English teams to have a charity on the front of their shirt.
This is much more than brand awareness as in a normal commercial sports sponsorship as the club is working to raise income for the YAA.
In order to raise the profile of both the club and the YAA, Town chairman Dean Hoyle and the director of business development Sean Jarvis has just vowed to cycle to the club’s first away fixture of the new season – no matter where it is.
This means the fixture could be anywhere across the country including long distance drives to the likes of Exeter, Southampton, Gillingham or Brighton.
The two have pledged to complete the cycle ride even if meant cycling to Exeter which is over 300 miles away. The fixture list will be announced in the middle of June.
A typical example of the work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance comes from Susan Leighton, whose daughter Charlotte’s life was saved by the YAA in 2006.
She said: “The Yorkshire Air Ambulance saved my daughter’s life in 2006 when she was hit by a car waiting for the school bus. They got her to the Leeds General Infirmary within 11 minutes.”
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