Many people attending the champagne launch of the new Essex Air Ambulance will be counting their blessings for the emergency service.

For among the crowd of VIPs to watch the new helicopter sweep into Colchester's Castle Park tomorrow will be those whose lives have been touched and in some cases saved by the crews and paramedics.

The new air ambulance flying in to Colchester's Castle Park for its champagne launch tomorrow

Castle Park will come alive with two days of music and sideshows to say goodbye to the old helicopter and celebrate the arrival of the new.

Among the most important guests at the free event tomorrow afternoon will be people like the Newton family from Halstead whose baby needed urgent treatment in a special care baby unit and teenager Ben Dyer from Kelvedon who received life threatening injuries in a road accident.

Then there is Paul Stirland from Braintree who had three heart attacks, one while driving, another while at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, and another while airborne, and Trevor Price from Clacton suffering from back injuries after a loft ladder he was using collapsed.

Essex Air Ambulance has been using a 30-year-old-Bolkow helicopter which costs £65,000 a month to operate.

It is being replaced by a bigger, better and quieter Eurocopter, but improvements do not come cheap.

It will cost about £25,000 extra a month to keep airborne and all the money is raised by public donations.

Fund-raising chief David Philpott has described the launch of the EC 135 as a "real boost".

He said the Eurocopter provided improved navigational aids, will also give more room in which to administer in-flight trauma care and where necessary, allow a family member to fly with a distressed patient.

Published Thursday, May 29, 2003

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