South Gloucestershire teenager Andrew Bryce does not think he would be alive today if it was not for the Great Western Air Ambulance.

Andrew, 16, had just stepped off the school bus metres from his Charfield home when he was knocked over by a car.

Despite losing five teeth, and suffering fractures to his skull, neck and eye socket when he hit the car's windscreen, Andrew has recovered well.

He has three scars, a plate to replace the teeth he lost and is slightly deaf in one ear, but he is happy to be alive and back at school with his friends, studying for his GCSEs.

The air ambulance helicopter landed in a field near the road at 3.20pm and the crew sedated Andrew before anaesthetising him, which would normally happen at an A&E department.

They checked his injuries and prepared him for the five-minute trip to Frenchay Hospital little more than an hour later.

The Katharine Lady Berkeley's School pupil knows he is lucky the air ambulance was operational the day he suffered his accident because the helicopter was brought in a month before and only flies just five days a week.

If he had been injured five weeks earlier, or on a Monday, he might have died.

Andrew calls Rhonda Collins, the air operations clinical team leader and the critical care paramedic who attended to him at the roadside, his "guardian angel".

His dad, Adrian, rushed to Andrew just after the accident and was faced with the sight of his son lying face down with a large pool of blood around his head.

"About 20 minutes later I heard the air ambulance overhead and could never have wished to hear anything sweeter," said Mr Bryce, and insurance engineer.

"The accident happened at about 3pm on a Friday in July when the roads were absolutely gridlocked. He needed to go to Frenchay and from Charfield that whole route would have virtually been a traffic jam.

"The helicopter jumped straight over the top and into Frenchay."

Mr Bryce, 43, had been working at home when there was a knock on the door from two boys who told him what had happened to Andrew.

"I ran out without my shoes," he said.

"His friend Vicky West put Andrew in the recovery position – she was a star.

"It's lucky really, as not many kids that age know how to lay someone out."

Andrew was admitted to the PACU (peri-anaesthetic care unit) on the Barbara Russell children's ward at Frenchay on the Friday night to ensure he had the necessary ventilation following the anaesthetic the helicopter crew gave him at the scene.

The next night he was transferred to the high-dependency, before being admitted to the main ward, where he completed his 15-day stay.

He is settling back in at school – although he has had to drop two of his GCSEs because his short-term memory has suffered.

Andrew's family – also including mum Sheri, and siblings Chris, 13 and Megan, nine – had a barbecue after he returned home to thank the people in the village who had helped out after Andrew's accident and raised almost £1,500 for the GWAA.

His father is trying to get all the schools in South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire to join in a non-uniform day on December 5 to raise even more money to keep the air ambulance flying, something he hopes could become an annual event.

"Our son has still got his smile, he lost teeth – though they can be replaced – rather than his nose or eyes. The air ambulance is absolutely crucial," said Mr Bryce.

"If we look at what could have happened if they had not been there, we would have been left with a brain-injured child.

"He is very lucky for what he went through, and we are a lucky family to have him back."

Mrs Bryce, 39, a student midwife, said: "It's an essential part of the NHS, I think. It would have cost more money helping us care for Andrew if the air ambulance crew had not been there.

"In the grand scheme of things, it is money well spent. It is an invaluable part of saving lives.

"They cannot be without the service. And it would be lovely to see them go up to seven days from five, because there will always be one person who doesn't get that care."

"If the air ambulance hadn't turned up, I wouldn't be here and I owe them my life," said Andrew.

"I was put on life support at the scene and that is what I really needed, a normal ambulance couldn't have done that.

"I am just so thankful that they set it up the month before."

Any schools across Bristol or South Gloucestershire interested in supporting the non-uniform day in aid of the air ambulance on December 5 should contact Mr Bryce on 01454 260 065 or 07850 014 701.