Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance has become a familiar sight in the skies above Tayside and Fife in the past 12 months.
Since its launch, the distinctive yellow, green and blue helicopter has flown to a huge number of time-critical emergencies across the region.
The early success of the charity, which is based at Perth Airport, is being highlighted as the UK marks Air Ambulance Week between September 22 and 28.
Tayside and Fife have benefited more than many other districts in Scotland from the arrival of SCAA, with more than half of the charity’s call-outs 218 of the first 400 to accident scenes in Tayside and Fife.
Its rapid response has taken it to time-critical crises ranging from major trauma injuries at road crashes and sporting accidents to cardiac and stroke emergencies at locations as far afield as Drumochter and Dunblane, Tyndrum and St Andrews.
Integrated with Scotland’s Government-funded two helicopter and two fixed-wing air ambulance resources, SCAA has also been tasked to emergencies the length and breadth of the country.
SCAA chief executive Gavin Davey said: “Our central base at Perth Airport enables us to reach 90% of the population in Scotland within 25 minutes, and in some cases we have reduced a potential road journey of hours to just minutes by air.”
Mr Davey added that the “incredible” work of the growing army of volunteers had been a key part of SCAA’s success to date.
More volunteers are always required, and anyone considering donating a few hours of their time to charity is invited to consider signing up to SCAA during National Air Ambulance Week.
Visit www.scaa.org.uk for more information.