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East Anglian Air Ambulance 'of ultimate importance' 20 years on

EAAA Carolyn SkipperEAAA
Carolyn Skipper said doctors were "stunned" by the reduction in bleeding from her head injury which they said was down to the care from the air ambulance

A woman said the air ambulance service that saved her life was "of the ultimate importance" as it celebrates 20 years since it was founded.

Carolyn Skipper, from Catfield, Norfolk, suffered a severe head injury after a bike crash in September 2017.

A doctor from the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) treated the wound and flew her to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

She said the service "was just so amazing".

The charity's chief executive Patrick Peal said the service provided by the air ambulance was "essential".

Mrs Skipper, 58, needed urgent help after coming off her bike while riding with her husband.

"I was completely out on the road, with a fractured head, bleeding like mad," she said.

"I was dying on the side of the road but the air ambulance arrived very quickly."

EAAA East Anglian Air AmbulanceEAAA
The East Anglian Air Ambulance was started as a charity in September 2000

She spent two days unconscious at Addenbrooke's, and was able to go home three weeks later.

But she said she did not fully recover for a year and had to "relearn to walk".

Mrs Skipper, who runs a print company with her husband, said the EAAA was vital in rural areas like Norfolk.

"I was on a little old back road in the middle of nowhere and to fly me to the hospital where I needed to be and alive, is just amazing," she said.

"They are of the ultimate importance because they see you when you are at that point where it is life and death."

EAAA East Anglian Air AmbulanceEAAA
EAAA have flown almost 30,000 missions including in 2004 attending to a man who fell from a roof in Lavenham, Suffolk

The EAAA launched in September 2000, and began operating the following year one day a week from Norwich Airport, with one paramedic.

The service now covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, and has flown almost 30,000 missions and helped almost 20,000 patients since then.

In 2015 Prince William started serving as a pilot, flying out of Cambridge for two years.

Chief executive Mr Peal said: "EAAA is a unique lifeline for anyone in East Anglia; we are incredibly proud to be here today, having kept flying throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and to see such a high need for our crews over the last few months.

"We're so, so thankful for all the support we have received over the last 20 years."

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