Volunteers give over 750 hours to help Great North Air Ambulance Service during 2023

During 2023 the service responded to more than 2,000 calls. Credit: ITV News Border

Volunteers spent over 43,000 minutes helping the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) over the last year.

The latest statistics showed more than 100 regular volunteers which are considered part of the charity's 'ground crew' had dedicated more than 755 hours.

This has included a number of different activities from delivering public presentations to manning stalls at fairs and emptying collection boxes.

It came as the service responded to more than 2,000 calls in 2023.

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 GNAAS is now looking to expand its team of volunteers across both Cumbria and the North East.

It would specifically like to see volunteers in Middlesbrough, Redcar, Saltburn andSunderland.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 donations to survive and every year needs more than £8m to keep running.

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