SHOPPERS in Bristol and the West can do their bit to help keep the air ambulance flying by logging on to a special website.

Great Western Air Ambulance (GWAA) needs to raise £1.3 million a year to continue saving lives. Now, the charity behind the helicopter service has joined forces with a Bristol-based organisation to help supporters raise funds just by shopping online.

GWAA was launched in June this year and flies emergency doctors and specialist paramedics to the scenes of incidents to provide life-saving care.

They bring A&E standard care and medication to emergencies to stabilise and treat people before they are taken to the most appropriate hospital for their injuries. However, their services are not funded by the NHS and, apart from paramedic salaries and drugs, they have to raise the funds to provide the emergency care.

The Fundraising People's website acts as a directory of some of the best-known retail brands on the High Street, but when shoppers access stores' pages through the site, they earn commission for their chosen charity.

Supporters of GWAA can enter a specific web address that will ensure any purchases they make with the online traders will trigger a commission for the charity. A diverse range of retailers have signed up to the scheme, including those selling toys, furniture, DIY products, sporting goods, food and drink and insurance.

Shoppers can choose from almost 500 suppliers, including M&S, Boots, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Asda, Dorothy Perkins and will be re-directed to their usual websites, where they will benefit from the same prices and offers as other users, but will also be raising money for the charity. The amount of commission offered by each retailer is clearly shown on The Fundraising People's website, so shoppers can see just how they are helping GWAA.

Peter Strong of the Fundraising People, gave up work six months ago to set up the not-for-profit venture, which also helps other charities and organisations.

He said: "The principle is that rather than people who shop online and going to Google to search for sites to shop around, we offer the chance for people to connect to our website and shop for exactly the same price, but all the companies pay commission back to us and we pass the majority of that back to the air ambulance."

Paul Weir, chief executive of the Bristol-Based GWAA charity, said: "If you normally shop online, go via our website to the sites you normally deal with ... but at the same time (you will be) benefiting the charity because we get commission on everything bought. If we get lots of people to do this, we can make a real difference."