BIG-HEARTED staff working for a housing association have raised more than £1,000 to help keep a lifesaving service airborne.

Eastlight Community Homes, which has offices in Braintree and Colchester, has generated £1,500 on behalf of the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust.

The vital charity was chosen by customers and staff of Greenfields Community Housing to be its Charity of the Year for 2020.

Greenfields then merged with Colne Housing to become Eastlight Community Homes in July 2020, but fundraising continued throughout the transition.

Despite coronavirus restrictions curtailing traditional fundraising methods, staff raised the cash through donating the value of untaken annual leave.

They also held online activities and organised a tuckshop which attracted customers before the pandemic took hold.

Supporting the ambulance trust is a personal mission for Eastlight staff, not least because governance advisor Yvette Boreham believes it saved her father’s life.

In 2015 the 75-year-old suffered a cardiac emergency at his friend’s home and within minutes of being called both a land ambulance and an air ambulance had arrived.

The initial thoughts of the land ambulance medics were to take Yvette’s dad to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

Quick-thinking air ambulance experts, however, decided he had to be seen by heart specialists at Basildon Hospital which Yvette believes proved a vital decision.

“The decision to take him straight there saved his life, as he probably wouldn’t have survived the journey of being taken to Broomfield first,” she added.

“Not a day goes by when we don’t think about it.”

Once at Basildon he went straight into surgery for life-saving treatment for what it turned out were two “silent” heart attacks with no obvious symptoms.

He was in hospital for 12 days, before recovering and he has now just celebrated his 81st birthday.

Mark Leete, Eastlight’s GDPR project and information manager, received a shocking phone call from his dad, explaining his mum was badly injured at their home.

The air ambulance soon landed in a nearby school field.

Once Mark’s mum, 54, was stabilised, she was flown to Royal London Hospital in six minutes and taken immediately into surgery before making a full recovery.

“Thanks to the air ambulance my mum had an extra five years of life,” Mark said.

“You don’t really how important they are until you need them. It’s a minute between life and death.”

Clair Mitchell, fundraising coordinator at EHAAT has now thanked staff at Eastlight Community Homes for their donations.

She said: “On behalf of everyone at the charity, thank you so much for your support, this is very generous donation, and it really is appreciated.

“Our fundraising efforts have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen events and initiatives being cancelled and postponed during the lockdown.

“Despite this over the last few months our critical care teams have continued to provide our life-saving service 24/7.

“That’s why now, more than ever we need support from the people and businesses of this region, so thank you for your support.

“Our missions are funded by your donations, and we can’t fly without you.”