Teenage girl critically injured in Bootle crash 'saved by air ambulance'

A teenager would not have survived a road crash which killed her two friends without the response of an air ambulance service, her aunt has said.

Ellis Marr, 18, and friends Skye Mitchell, 18, and Caitlin Huddleston, 18, all from Millom in Cumbria, were heading for a meal out when they were involved in a collision with a van travelling in the opposite direction on the A595 in Bootle on July 14.

The driver, Miss Mitchell, and front seat passenger Miss Huddleston were pronounced dead at the scene.

Back seat passenger Miss Marr was treated for critical injuries by the North West Ambulance Service and the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).

Miss Marr was airlifted to Royal Preston Hospital where she is still recovering from fractures to the pelvis, leg and back, a brain injury and bruised ribs.

Andrew Barrington, an air ambulance doctor, said Ellis was "very much in the category of unexpected survivors", and has invited her to visit the team's base when she is ready.

Following the tragedy her family collected her A-level results which revealed she achieved the grades needed to secure an apprenticeship at nuclear site Sellafield ,which she hopes to take up next year.

Her uncle, Louis Cummings, 41, was among a team of cyclists who recently took part in a sponsored 135-mile bike ride from Millom to Penrith to raise money for GNAAS, a registered charity, and the final total will be matched by his employers, the National Nuclear Laboratory.