A NEW air ambulance service based at Blackpool has been launched at a ceremony at Lancashire Ambulance Headquarters in Broughton.

The new helicopter emergency service is to be partly funded over the next three years under a National Association of Air Ambulance Service initiative, supported by the AA, helping to establish the UK's first national network of air ambulances.

The helicopter, based at Blackpool Airport, will cover the whole of the North West and be operated by a crew provided by Lancashire Ambulance Service.

Chief executive of LAS David Hill said: "We are very pleased that the North West has been chosen as one of the first areas to receive an air ambulance. Blackpool is very well placed to allow us to get anywhere within the North West very quickly indeed."

"I am confident this additional facility will quickly prove to be a major benefit, getting to patients quicker and transferring seriously ill patients between hospitals."

Nigel Webb, chief executive of NAAAS, said: "An air ambulance can make all the difference between life and death, regaining full health or a long stay in hospital."

A separate charitable trust is being established to promote individual donations and charitable sponsorship aimed at raising £300,000 in the first year.

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