Yorkshire Air Ambulance takes 5,000th patient

Yorkshire Air Ambulance, who we have supported over many years raising more than £18,000 for the charity, has airlifted its 5,000th patient to hospital after a drummer had to be cut from a car by firefighters after a head-on collision. This is a great achievement!
Chris Parr suffered broken ribs, a fractured breast bone and a fractured knee in the two-car smash at Marsden, near Huddersfield.
The 48-year-old, a drummer with Huddersfield band State of Confusion, was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary.
He is now recovering at home and has been visited by Yorkshire Air Ambulance paramedics Sammy Willis and John Baxter.
Chris said: "I could not believe how quick the response was to the accident and all the emergency services were just fantastic. 'The air ambulance crew were just brilliant, supporting me and keeping me calm throughout the flight and I can't thank them enough.
"It is amazing to think I am the 5,000th patient they have helped. The air ambulance does such a vital job and I'm so grateful to them."
Yorkshire Air Ambulance was set up 13 years ago and operates two air ambulances from bases in North and West Yorkshire providing a life-saving emergency response service to five million people.
To keep both helicopters in the air, the charity needs to raise £9,990 per day, equivalent to £3.6 million per year.
The only support Yorkshire Air Ambulance receives is through the secondment of their paramedics from Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
A Yorkshire Air Ambulance spokeswoman said: ''The charity was set up in 2000 with a second air ambulance launched in 2007. It is just incredible to think we have flown 5,000 patients.
"This is an amazing achievement, which couldn't happen without the wonderful support we receive from Yorkshire people and businesses.
"So we would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone who helps us to keep saving lives in Yorkshire."
Jon Ellis, our managing director, says: “The team at the Yorkshire Air Ambulance does a fantastic job and everyone at Ferno is very proud to be associated with an organisation that saves so many lives in the Yorkshire region. Every year colleagues at Ferno look for new ways to raise funds for this very important charity.”
Jon has raised cash during the past three years for the Keep It Up campaign by taking part in a series of challenging charity bike rides called Pedal for Pounds. The events are organised by Huddersfield Town FC where Jon is a season ticket holder and fundraise for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Huddersfield Town Academy. In four years, more than £800,000 has been donated to the Keep It Up campaign.
Ferno is a long-standing corporate supporter of the air ambulance and we encourage colleagues to come up with ideas to raise money for the charity. At the last count, the company had raised more than £18,600 from activities such as football, bake-offs, cooking, recycling initiatives and monthly dress down days.