Canoe trip to help air ambulance

The 30-mile trip was set to begin and end at Kings Ferry

Two paramedics are canoeing around the Isle of Sheppey this weekend to raise money for the Kent Air Ambulance.

Gary Balderston and Lee Smith began their 30-mile trip at Kings Ferry before passing Queenborough to end at Warden on Saturday evening.

They were due to start again on Sunday afternoon to return to the bridge which connects the island to mainland Kent.

The paramedics hope to raise £20,000 through sponsors to upgrade monitoring equipment on the air ambulance.

Life-saving equipment

Gary Balderston and Lee Smith say they organised the trip in two stages to take advantage of the tides.

Mr Balderston said: "Around the Isle of Sheppey, where the docks are, there are approximately seven tides, or seven different currents, which all meet in one area.

"It can make it quite choppy and sticky to canoe through, so that's going to be quite a difficult part and of course the temperature of the water is pretty cold."

He said the money would go towards buying 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring equipment which would sit on the air ambulance helicopter and would be used to find out when somebody is having a heart attack.

"Once we get that definitive diagnosis, we can then treat them with relatively new pre-hospital treatment called tenecteplase, a thrombolytic which physically breaks down the clot and decreases heart damage."

The charity depends solely on donations to keep the helicopter in the air.