THE London Air Ambulance service has reached an historic milestone with the completion of its 25,000th mission this week.

Since its inception in 1988, the unit has helped saved thousands of lives and has attended almost all of the major incidents to hit Waltham Forest and Redbridge.

Its main chopper can reach anywhere within the M25 in the space of just 12 minutes, which can be the difference between life and death for many critically injured people.

The service was first set up in response to a damning report by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1980, which concluded that too many people in the capital were dying because emergency medical help was not getting to them quickly enough.

Operations began proper in 1989 at a temporary base in Biggin Hill Airport in south east London near Croydon.

The service was funded by a mixture of NHS grants, sponsorship and donations, which it still relies on heavily to this day.

In 1990 the service decided to move to a more central location, provoking competition among many hospitals in the capital.

However it was the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel that won out, as it was the only place judged to be suitable for building a helipad on its roof.

Since then, the service has helped thousands of people and attended all of the disasters to have hit London, including the train crashes at Canon Street, Southall and Paddington, and bombings such as the July 7 2005 attacks, when the team flew 28 missions in one day.

Usually the unit attends the most urgent and serious medical emergencies, which mainly consist of major road traffic crashes, stabbings, shootings and falls from heights.

An average of 3,500 calls comes into the London Ambulance Service control room every day, which the team has to whittle down to the most serious for the air ambulance crew to attend.

A typical day will see the team fly seven missions. They can also be requested by ambulances on the ground if extra help is needed.

Each team is made up of a senior doctor, a paramedic and two pilots, but they are also supported by the unit's own rapid responder cars on the ground.

Generally, while the service is in operation 24 hours a day, the helicopter will only fly between 7am and sunset due to dangers of night-time flying in urban environments, with the responder cars taking over at night.

The helicopter itself, which can travel at up to 200mph, is specially designed for the often difficult landing conditions found in London.

It has no tail rota blades and its small size allows precise manoeuvres, essential for its average flying height of 1,500 feet.

However the service does not come cheap, costing around £2.25million a year to run.

For more information and to donate call 0207 943 1302.

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