A £2.5M appeal to replace an ageing air ambulance that has saved countless lives got off to a flying start yesterday.

Within minutes of Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) launch-ing an appeal for a new helicopter, donations started pouring in.

An 82-year-old woman phoned to pledge £1,000 after watching the launch on television.

And a further £100,000 was donated by a not-for-profit healthcare organisa-tion.

The current helicopter has carried out more than 4,000 missions in Yorkshire and the North-East since the service was launched in 2000, said YAA chief executive Martin Eede.

"After 15 years of really top service, four with us, it's coming to the end of its life," said Mr Eede.

"We are having to spend more and more time on the ground and we need a helicopter that is reliable to make sure the service can run 365 days a year."

The new helicopter will have more space for paramedics to work and be able to fly longer without a service.

Supporters of the air ambulance including cricket legend and YAA patron Fred Trueman attended the launch of the Golden Wings appeal at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

Also present was the service's youngest ever patient, two-year-old Isaac Plumb.

Isaac was born at his home near York with the umbilical cord around his neck.

The air ambulance flew him to hospital in five minutes - a journey that would have taken 45 minutes by road.

The air ambulance was also called after a 17-year-old girl from Malton, North Yorkshire, suffered a crushed pelvis and ruptured spleen in a riding accident.

"We got her to hospital in ten minutes - the doctors said another five minutes and she would have been dead," said Mr Eede, who stressed that the service received no Government funding and relied wholly on donations from the public and bus-inesses.

Announcing his firm's donation of £100,000, Sovereign Health Care sales and marketing manager Paul Kitching said: "We are delighted to set the Golden Wings appeal off to a good start and hope our significant contribution will set a sponsorship benchmark for other companies to follow."

Contact (0845) 1206060 to make a donation to the appeal.

* The Great North Air Ambulance service has revealed a new motto - Public Action, Public Benefit. The charity operates three helicopters in the North, with bases in County Durham, Blyth and Cumbria.