THIS month sees the 20th year in the running that a team has continued to save lives in Dorset by taking to the skies.

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance were tasked to their first mission on March 21 in 2000 and have now reached two decades worth of operations delivering pre-hospital clinical care for 19 hours every day.

To mark their anniversary, a 20 Years By Your Side initiative has been launched on their website to showcase how far they have come with the help of public support.

The site gives detailed information on the charity's history, their key milestones, an insight into what happens when the air ambulance is tasked to an incident and a number of patient stories who were helped by them.

Bill Sivewright, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance CEO, said: "In the last six years, the number of patients in need of our service has quadrupled in size; we have been tasked to over 16,000 incidents, with more than 2,000 of these being last year alone.

"We have spent the last two years broadening our examination to include areas that, whilst not directly affecting the critical care to a patient, offers indirect ways to improve patient care generally, or even help them avoid becoming a patient in the first place."

The service has flown thousands of missions and are tasked as part of the normal ‘999’ emergency process by a dedicated Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) desk.

They are able to attend up to eight or nine incidents in a single day during the summer months.

“We recognise that at this time the public may be concerned about their finances, however, we also know that they appreciate the life-chances that Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance can bring. In the last 20 years we have come so far.

"With the patient as our motivation and continued support from the public, we hope to be able to continue to innovate, develop and be there for the next 20 years and beyond.”

To visit their website, go to www.dsairambulance.org.uk/20years.