Nikita and school pals get behind our Air Angels appeal

Feb 28 2010 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

THESE little angels have helped our campaign edge even closer to its total.

Nikita Battye and her classmates at Green Lane Primary School, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, pulled on angel wings to raise cash for the Great North Air Ambulance’s bid to buy its own helicopter.

Thanks to the youngsters’ efforts and support from other generous families in the North, the Sunday Sun’s Air Angels campaign total now stands at £282,000.

Nikita from Butterknowle, in County Durham, is alive today thanks to the quick treatment she received from an Air Ambulance doctor after she was kicked in the head by a horse.

Days later she came out of a coma at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, Teesside, and has gone on to make a full recovery.

Her brain was saved from damage when air medics put her to sleep at the scene, a procedure which could not have been carried out by a road ambulance.

Ever since Nikita and her grateful parents John and Tina, have backed our bid to raise £1m.

With the money the GNAA will be able to buy its own chopper for the first time, securing it’s long term future and allowing more lives to be saved and more pain to be eased across the region.

At the moment there is only one helicopter covering the whole of the North.

Mandy Drake, fundraising manager at the charity, which receives absolutely no Government funding, said: “Our thanks go to Nikita and her classmates for their fundraising efforts.

“We are extremely grateful to everyone who helps support our campaign. We are entirely reliant on public donations for our running costs and we need to raise this £1m on top of that.