Air ambulance in £15,000 appeal

Almost 20% of Welsh air ambulance call-outs are in mid Wales

A £15,000 fund-raising appeal for life-saving defibrillation equipment has been launched by Wales Air Ambulance (WAA).

The charity said it needed the equipment for its helicopter covering mid and south east Wales in time for the busy summer period.

The WAA service, based in Welshpool, Powys, became a fixture on 1 January following a short trial.

Its two other helicopters, in Swansea and Caernarfon, have defibrillators.

WAA has said that nearly 20% of its helicopter call-outs are in mid Wales and remote areas in the region can be difficult for road ambulances to access.

Powys alone had 3,000 emergency calls over summer 2005, and about a third of these were life-threatening.

The addition of an air ambulance in Welshpool means WAA's helicopters are now a maximum of 18 minutes away from an incident anywhere in Wales, the WAA said last year.