Shearer delivers an early Christmas Gift

22nd December 2011 4:17PM

Benfield Brand Ambassador Alan Shearer was on hand to deliver the keys to a Hyundai i10 to the lucky winner of the Great North Air Ambulance Raffle.

Benfield Brand Ambassador Alan Shearer was on hand to handover the keys to a brand new Hyundai i10 to the lucky winner of the Great North Air Ambulance Car Raffle.

The winner was Mrs Joyce Charlton a pensioner from Tyne & Wear who has revealed the family link that prompted her to  buy a ticket.

The wife of Joyce Charlton’s nephew was airlifted by the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) earlier this year following a car crash.

So when the 82-year-old from Tyne and Wear was offered the chance to buy a ticket in the GNAAS annual draw, she snapped one up.

Mrs Charlton’s name was pulled from more than 100,000 others in the draw, which has raised £120,000 for GNAAS, which completes thousands of missions a year and relies on public donations to survive.

The main prize was a Hyundai i10 car, donated by Benfield Motor Group, which was presented to the retired shopworker by Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer today.

Mrs Charlton, of Greenside, Tyne and Wear, said: “I was gobsmacked. I thought I was dreaming. I’ve supported the Great North Air Ambulance for a long time through its lottery, but I’ve not won anything until now. This more than makes up for it.”

She was joined at the handover by her nephew Ian Forster and his wife Irene, who knows as well as anyone else how valuable GNAAS is to the communities it serves.

Mrs Forster, 67, was airlifted after her car spun into a concrete bollard in Alston, Cumbria. She cannot remember the incident but it is believed she accidentally pushed the accelerator instead of the brake.

The mistake almost had catastrophic consequences. Mrs Forster, a retired auxiliary nurse, had to be cut out of the vehicle.

She sustained neck, chest and back injuries, and GNAAS dispatched both its Pride of Cumbria aircraft and one of its rapid response vehicles.

Mr Forster, a retired builder, said: “It just shows how much we rely on the Great North Air Ambulance up here.

“The road ambulance do a great job but they have to come from Carlisle, and then in this case go back to Carlisle. The journey takes an hour by road, but the helicopter was able to get her to the hospital in eight minutes.”

Mrs Forster added: “It was definitely the quickest I have ever got to Carlisle.”

Grahame Pickering, chief executive of GNAAS, said: “I want to thank each and every person who bought a ticket and for Benfield Motor Group for giving us this great prize.

“The money raised will go towards paying for dozens of potentially life-saving missions.”

Mark Squires, chief executive at Benfield Motor Group, said: “We are a North-East based family business, with family values, so we were delighted to donate this car, through our Charitable Trust, to the GNAAS to help with their fundraising efforts.

“It’s quite amazing the car raffle has raised over £120,000, which is great testimony to the fantastic work and campaigning of the Great North Air Ambulance fundraising team and its supporters.”