JACKIE Rycroft, who was flown by the Wiltshire Air Ambulance to hospital after she suffered a serious asthma attack, says it is vital that it continues to fly at night.

The Great Western Ambulance Service is conducting a clinical review of air cover in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Avon. If a dedicated air ambulance replaces the joint Wiltshire Air Ambulance and Wiltshire police helicopter, under existing Civil Aviation Authority rules it would not be able to fly at night.

The Wiltshire Air Ambulance is one of only two in the country that can fly at night because of the specialist equipment onboard the helicopter and about a third of the air ambulance work is done at night.

Paramedics on a road ambulance were treating Miss Rycroft, 32, after she suffered the asthma attack just before midnight on Saturday at her home in Foxley Fields, Urchfont. As well as a severe asthma attack Miss Rycroft, who has two children, also had chest pains.

The ambulance had set off to take Miss Rycroft to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon when her condition worsened and the paramedic on board called for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance to take her.

Miss Rycroft was lapsing in and out of consciousness as she was driven to the air ambulance's base at Wiltshire Police's headquarters in Devizes.

The helicopter flight took ten minutes to take Miss Rycroft to the Great Western Hospital. Miss Rycroft was discharged on Sunday afternoon.

She said: "That was the worst asthma attack I have had and I had never had chest pains like that before, it was a stabbing pain near my heart.

"The doctors thought I might have had a clot on my lung but I didn't. If I had gone on a road ambulance to Swindon it would have taken 35 to 40 minutes. If the air ambulance hadn't flown me to hospital I could have been longer in hospital."

Miss Rycroft signed the Gazette's petition to save Wiltshire Air Ambulance weeks ago.

Top level support for our appeal has come from the High Sheriff of Wiltshire Madeline Wilks who has also signed our petition.

n THE Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal has benefited from fundraising by the Wyvern Band. The band, based in Devizes, presented a cheque for £1,000 from collections at events where it played including carnivals and Devizes Christmas Festival.