A Bristol helicopter service has now been saving lives for a year.

The Great Western Air Ambulance (GWAA), which flies doctors and specialist paramedics out to emergencies in the former Avon area has flown to 45 incidents a month since it was launched last June.

Until it began operating from its Filton airfield base last year there was no helicopter cover for Bristol and the surrounding area.

But GWAA believes that it has proved there was a gap which needed to be filled.

The expertise of the crew enables them to bring the accident and emergency department to the scene of an incident and to provide additional drugs and carry out more detailed procedures that would usually be left until a patient reaches hospital.

They can anaesthetise patients and stabilise their breathing before transferring them to hospital either by helicopter or land ambulance.

The aircraft originally flew from Tuesday to Saturday, but in April the helicopter operating time was extended to 10 hours, seven days a week.

To provide the service to people in Bristol and beyond GWAA relies on donations and needs to raise at least £1.3 million a year.

The Evening Post joined forces with the air ambulance service in October to help them raise the necessary funds and so far more than £15,000 has been raised with the support of readers.

In the first 12 months GWAA chief executive Paul Weir said the charity raised in the region of £340,000 and pledges that have already been made for the next year amount to about £750,000, with 35 organisations or companies having named GWAA as their adopted charity.

Mr Weir said that despite donations pouring in there is still a need for people to support the air ambulance and help save more lives.

He said: "For most of the year we were only flying five days a week and we think that for the next year numbers will go up dramatically.

"There are lots of people out there supporting us and it shows that the general public realises this is their aircraft. We are very grateful because literally every penny counts.

"None of this would have been possible without the support of the Evening Post and its loyal readers".

Air operations manager and critical care paramedic at the unit, Danny Hopkins, said: "The team has completed some outstanding work over the last 12 months and many people's lives have been affected by the work we've been able to do."