THE first television advertising campaign to encourage people to support the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAAS) was launched yesterday.

Advertisements showing clips of the crew urges people to give 50p a week to maintain the life-saving service.

During the past year, the helicopters have been on 1,436 missions in Northumberland, County Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire and Cumbria, funded entirely by public donations.

They are used when people are critically ill and getting victims of serious accidents to hospital immediately is key to their chance of survival.

Grahame Pickering, chief executive of GNAAS, said: "The charity saw a drop in donations early in the year, after the tsunami appeal and the floods in Carlisle.

"The lack of funds meant we had to ground two of our helicopters. We want to increase our sustainable income, which is why we are asking everyone in the region to give a regular monthly donation."

GNAAS is a registered charity, established in May 1991, to provide an air ambulance for the then Northumbria Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

By 1994 sufficient funds had been generated by the charity, enabling it to buy the first air ambulance helicopter in the North of England.

In July 2002, the charity introduced a second helicopter based at Durham Tees Valley Airport and a third in Cumbria, in August 2004.

They cover an area of approximately 5,500 square miles with a population of 3.5 million people.

l If you would like to support GNAAS, contact (01325) 487263, or write to GNAAS, The Imperial Centre, Grange Road, Darlington, DL1 5NQ.