Great North Air Ambulance Service

Volunteers for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) have been praised for their efforts after the latest stats showed they spent more than 755 hours helping the charity last year.

GNAAS currently have over 100 regular volunteers as part of their ‘ground crew’, who dedicate their spare time representing the charity. Whether it’s delivering presentations to the public, manning stalls at summer shows, or emptying collection boxes, they help in numerous ways to support the cause.

Sophie Snowdon, fundraising lead at GNAAS, said: “Since March 2023 we’ve been using a volunteer management app which allows us to easily track the number of hours worked by our volunteers. The total for last year was 45,340 minutes, and this includes volunteers helping out at events such as our annual charity balls in the North East and Cumbria, bucket collections, community talks, stalls, and also admin at our HQ, such as helping with our annual raffle.

“We also have a wonderful team of volunteers who empty our collection tins, which are often on display in shops, pubs and workplaces across the region. Currently we are unable to track the hours for this activity, which means our volunteers have actually exceeded the 755 hours we have on record.”

The charity is currently seeking to expand their team of volunteers, and are recruiting for people to help empty their collection tins in the North East, specifically in Middlesbrough, Redcar, Saltburn and Sunderland.

In Cumbria they are also looking for volunteers to help out at stalls and bucket collections, amongst other things.

Mrs Snowdon said: “Our volunteers make a huge contribution to the work we do, and help us reach several communities within the 8,000 square miles that our critical care team operate in.

“We really appreciate everyone who has volunteered their time with GNAAS over the years, whether as a regular volunteer, or those who spared a few hours on a one-off basis.

“At the moment we’re looking to recruit further volunteers in the North East and Cumbria, so if anyone is interested in volunteering some of their time to help our cause, we would urge them to get in touch either online or over the phone.”

GNAAS relies on public donations and needs to raise more than £8m every year to survive. Last year, it responded to more than 2,000 call outs. If you would like to find out more about regular or one-off volunteering opportunities, please visit gnaas.com/volunteer or call 01325 487263.

About GNAAS

• The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a charitably funded air ambulance service which provides life-saving care throughout the North East, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Isle of Man.
  
• They operate two helicopters 365 days a year and also operate a night-time service in the North East and Cumbria on rapid response vehicles.
  
  
• The aircraft cover an area of more than 8,000 square miles and on board are specialist doctors and paramedics who effectively bring the hospital to the patient.
  
  
• The level of skill and expertise of the on-board team mean they respond to the most critically ill and injured people, giving them the best chance of survival.
  
  
• GNAAS is a progressive organisation which has pioneered pre-hospital care in the region.
  
• The latest techniques, equipment and drugs are constantly being evaluated to ensure the charity can provide the best care possible for their patients.
  
  
• 2022 marked the service providing 20 years of life-saving care. Throughout this time, they have responded to more than 23,500 incidents across the region, with road traffic collisions being the most frequent type of incident responded to by the team.
  
  
• They do not receive Government funding and must therefore raise £8.5m a year through public donations to remain operational.

For more information visit: https://www.greatnorthairambulance.co.uk/ or follow @gnairambulance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok