Calls for London Air Ambulance funding in budget

An Antiques Roadshow expert who was saved by London's Air Ambulance has joined nearly 30 MPs in calling on the chancellor to help fund its replacement.

London's Air Ambulance Charity is aiming to fundraise £15m to buy two new helicopters to replace its existing one.

MPs from across London have written a joint letter to Jeremy Hunt urging him to provide £3m towards the total cost.

The government has been asked to comment.

Mark Smith spoke to BBC London near to the Royal Hospital London helipad where he had previously been taken after he was hit by a vehicle.

"Without being up there that day, I wouldn't be here," he said.

"I think I was really, really quite badly injured and if I'd spent 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon in an ambulance trying to get here instead of the couple of minutes it took, I think it would've been a game changer."

Mr Smith, who has featured on Antiques Roadshow for 10 years, said the incident was a "game changer" and the air ambulance rescue gave him "the chance to start again".

He has joined the campaign by the London Air Ambulance charity to raise the required funds.

Mr Smith added: "Now I look up and I think, there's a life hanging in the balance there and it's not just that life in the balance, there's a whole family... that's affected."

While the personnel who staff the air ambulances are provided by the NHS, the money to buy and maintain the helicopters needs to be raised by other means.

In 2014, the then-chancellor George Osborne provided funding towards a replacement air ambulance.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader and MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said the amount being asked for from the Treasury was "relatively small".

"Londoners, businesses and individuals, will be reaching into their pockets to help this," he said.

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