Man who 'would be dead' without charity appeals for donations amid funding shortfall
A CUMBRIAN man who says he 'would have died' without the help of the air ambulance when he was involved in a brewery explosion last year has urged people to donate to the organisation.
The appeal comes following news that 2025 fundraising appeal for the vital Great North Air Ambulance Service has fallen behind target.
The charity, which provides life-saving care to critically ill and injured people across the North of England and the Isle of Man, relies on donations from the public to remain operational.
Unfortunately, their appeal, which helps fund the service, has failed to reach the same level of success as previous years.
Leigh Taylor, a 44-year-old from Seaton, was working on May 13, 2024, when he was engulfed by a fireball and badly burned in a blast at the Tractor Shed Brewery in Workington.
Speaking about how the air ambulance helped him that awful day, Leigh said: 'Last year I was involved in an accident at work, an explosion and I was in a critical condition, the air ambulance responded, air ambulance Doctor Patrick Duncan was the first one to respond, he responded in a vehicle and put me in an induced coma.
'I was flown to Newcastle RVI with 40% burns to my body; my legs, hands and face and they were basically the first link in the chain that saved my life that day.'
'I would have died; without a shadow of a doubt I would have died without them.
'I wouldn't have got to the RVI where they have a specialist burns unit, I wouldn't have got there in time on a road ambulance.'
In April, Leigh visited the GNAAS' base, where he had the opportunity to discuss his incident with Dr Duncan and find out more information about what happened in the aftermath.
Appealing to people to donate to the charity, Leigh said: 'I would just appeal to people to think (about donating). I had always given 5p in a charity bucket or something for the air ambulance always given loose change, but go and directly donate: five, ten, twenty pounds I would ask people to consider that because if you're like me you never know.
'You never think it's going to be you until it's you, I'd just ask people to spare a thought for that and give what they can to the air ambulance.'
It currently costs £9.3m a year to fund the service, which equates to just over £25,200 per day.
Joe Garcia, interim chief executive officer at GNAAS, said: 'The past few years have been challenging for GNAAS, and as time goes on, our aircraft are aging and the cost of running this service is increasing, whilst charitable support across all charities is dropping.
'In 2024 we were predicted to run at a deficit and go into our limited reserves just to keep us flying, and we don't want history to repeat itself.'
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