Emotional families saved by an air ambulance charity have taken part in a tear-jerking video campaign to help raise much needed cash for the vital service.
The footage shows mums, dads and kids talking about how their lives have changed forever because of accidents which the emergency helicopters were sent to.
One little boy Little Finlay Connor, six, was killed by an out-of-control bus while he held his mother Niki’s hand on the way to school.
Brave Niki, 41, was nearly killed in the accident which saw her pinned to a car before being dragged along the road, but was saved by the Great Western Air Ambulance.
She has now backed a fundraising campaign for the charity, thanking them for making sure her other son Louis, now seven, didn’t lose his “mummy and his brother”.
Also featured is Trevor Hing, 63, whose heart stopped three times on the way to the bank, and schoolboy Jamie Barker, who was knocked off his bike.
Speaking in an emotional video, brave mum Niki from Devizes in Wiltshire, said: “Louis was definitely my reason for wanting to be here still.
“It was thanks to the air ambulance that he still has a mummy because losing his brother obviously was very very hard for him and for me to see and still see the effect of that on him losing his brother.
“Just the thought of him losing his brother and his mummy that day would just be too awful.”
Finlay and Niki were hit by a bus within yards of Woodborough Primary School in March 2011 after the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brakes.
Thankfully the Great Western Air Ambulance were on the scene within minutes, saving her life by giving her vital medical attention before she was air lifted to hospital.
Now the married mum has joined fellow supporters to back a new video campaign to encourage people to donate money to the charity, which needs #2million a year to run.
Also featured in the emotional video is pensioner Trevor Hing, 63, whose heart stopped three times after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to the bank.
The town councillor said he owes his life to the air ambulance who saved his life when he collapsed in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in March last year.
Supporting the cause in the video, he held back tears as he said: “I’m told by my consultant that my heart actually stopped three times.
“My chances of survival were put at probably one in 100 so my family and myself of course are grateful for all those people who came to my rescue.
“I wouldn’t be here without them.”
GWAAC is one of the few air ambulances who take a critical care paramedic and critical care doctor to the scene of an accident.
The team fly seven days a week, 365 days a year, attend more than 100 incidents per month and is one of the busiest air ambulances in the UK.
They helped schoolboy Jamie Barker, from Bristol, who suffered a broken leg and head injuries when he was hit by a car while cycling to the park with his brother last year.
He said: “All I know is I got on my bike, I wheeled my bike on to the road, and then my mind just went blank from there really.”
A spokesperson for the charity said: “This has come at a price, and we now need to raise #2million a year to keep our helicopter flying, and rely entirely on the support of the people in the region we cover.
“Essentially we are a flying Accident and Emergency Department, bringing the hospital to the patients.
“You never know when you might need us, and that’s why it’s so important for people to support our cause and to help keep our air ambulance flying.”
