YORKSHIRE Air Ambulance (YAA) has welcomed seven new helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) paramedics to their crew, including one with Keighley connections.

The paramedics are seconded from partner Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS), on an initial six-month basis.

One of them, Terri-Ann Lonie, became a paramedic in 2017, initially based out of Keighley, then Pateley Bridge and Harrogate.

She completed a secondment at HART, Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s Hazardous Area Response Team before joining Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

She said: “The pre-hospital care they give and the speed that they can fly a patient to the hospital is incredible.”

The other new recruits are Lindsey Newey (Sheffield); Becky Knight (Huddersfield); Tammy Williams (Pontefract); Fiona Blaylock (Harrogate); Andy Watson (Leeds) and Sam Berridge (Bridlington).

The Paramedics form part of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Critical Care Team, comprising a team of anaesthetic and emergency medicine consultants, and 23 paramedics who work as crew on the two YAA helicopters delivering the life-saving service 365 days a year to five million people across four million acres of Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity needing to raise £12,000 per day to keep both of its air ambulances in the air. They attend more than 1,700 missions a year.