Great North Air Ambulance provide pioneering pre-hospital air ambulance services across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire covering approximately 8,000 square miles.  They are not NHS funded and are 100% reliant on public donations.

They have two staffed bases at Langwathby, near Penrith and Progress House in Eaglescliffe, which also houses the charity’s fundraising, lottery and administration teams.  The helicopters and crews are perfectly placed to respond when needed.

The charity’s roots go back to 1991, when the Great North Air Ambulance Service Appeal was launched with the aim of providing the North East of England’s first helicopter air ambulance. It took four years to raise enough money to bring this dream to fruition and now needs upwards of £7.7m each year to fund the charity and the three helicopters it now runs.  The average cost per call out is approximately £4,500.  In 2021 there were 1,620 callouts 934 were by helicopter and the remaining 686 by rapid response vehicles.