Great North Air Ambulance Service

An Egremont woman has completed her first marathon in Manchester in support of the air ambulance charity who saved the lives of her family.

Lisa McCrickard, 41, from Egremont, took part in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday and has raised more than £1,700 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).

GNAAS 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.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service cut the father and son out of the car, and the critical care teams from GNAAS flew to the scene, from their bases in Cumbria and Teesside.

Mrs McCrickard had received a phone call informing her what had happened, and was driven to the scene where she saw her youngest son Harry being airlifted to hospital by the North West Air Ambulance, who had been requested to assist GNAAS.

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, a bruised lung, snapped his femur, and suffered 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.

Last year, Mrs McCrickard, who had previously run a few half marathons, decided she was going take part in the Manchester Marathon to raise even more money for the air ambulance service.

Despite nerves on the day, she overcame a panic attack at mile three and after using her inhaler to help her breathe she managed to get round the rest of the way and enjoy it.

She said: “It was amazing crossing the line. I actually didn’t think I’d be able to run to the finish, but I saw my family and I just wanted to get to them.

“They surprised me at mile 14 with a big banner and then at 20 and then the line.”

Harry joined his mother at the end of the marathon, and they held hands as they crossed the finish line together.

After celebrating with her family, they had a long drive back to Egremont where Mrs McCrickard was able to have a chilled out evening with a relaxing bath.

At the time of writing she has raised £1,760 for GNAAS, and you can still sponsor her via her JustGiving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/lisa-mccrickard-1709392592304

She said: “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.”

GNAAS needs to raise £8.5m a year to remain operational. To find out more about how you can support the charity visit: gna.as/fund247

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, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

For press enquiries please email media@gnaas.com or call 07554453494