Pictured by one of the new textile banks are Kit Von Mickwitz, Yorkshire Air Ambulance Paramedic and Sarah Stones, Clinical Supervisor at Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The YAA are on a mission to expand its textile-recycling scheme in order to raise funds for a number of life saving defibrillators.

 In a joint partnership with The Yorkshire Ambulance NHS Trust, The YAA are placing 19 new textile recycling units outside some of the region’s ambulance stations to help fund the new operation.

The YAA has received a staggering £2.5 million in donations since launching its recycling scheme ten years ago. Yet it costs the charity £12,000 a day to keep its two emergency response helicopters in the air.

With a further financial boost, the charity plans to place a number of life-saving Public Access Defibrillators in local communities around Yorkshire.

Erfana Mahmood, Non-Executive Director at Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust and Chair of the Trust’s Charitable Fund Committee, said: “This joint initiative is an extension of YAA’s already successful scheme and we are looking forward to being able to use the income from the clothes banks based at some of our ambulance stations to fund more community Public Access Defibrillators across Yorkshire and the Humber and help to save more lives.”

The rapid response emergency service attends more than 1,000 incidents a year and has so far airlifted more than 6,200 people to hospital. Often patients who go into cardiac arrest can’t wait for the air ambulance to arrive but can be saved if defibrillators are located nearby.

The 19 new sites are located at ambulance stations from Bainbridge in North Yorkshire to Wath upon Dearne in the South, from Hornsea in the East to Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

To locate your nearest bank please visit the YAA website www.yaa.org.uk or call 01422 237900

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