Our critical care teams continue to remain active across Cumbria and beyond.

In April we were called out 53 times. Of these 34 missions were in our helicopter and 19 were in our rapid response vehicles. Overall, this is a little less than we would normally expect at this time of year, which we think is down to the fact that fewer people were out and about during the month.

The past week has seen a marked increase in activity however, with 24 callouts. But we can meet this rise in demand with the support of the public and the preparations that have been made.

Due to the ever-evolving situation surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak we are wearing full advanced personal protective equipment (PPE) every time we attend an incident.

We now have respiratory hoods which are designed with a built-in pressure fan and filtration system which reduces risk when performing procedures.

We’ve also installed Perspex shields into both our operational aircraft to separate the cabin and the cockpit, again protecting the team and the patient during the outbreak.

It’s because of these safety measures that we have been able to continue our work.

Away from our operational duties we have also been supporting the fundraising side of the charity and recently took part in the 2.6 challenge.

Sunday April 26 should have been the day of the London Marathon, the biggest one-day fundraising event in the world, but it has now been postponed to October.

With several fundraising events cancelled across the UK due to Covid-19, the 2.6 challenge was launched on April 26 to raise vital funds to help save the UK’s charities.

The challenge is to do an activity based around the numbers 2.6 or 26 and raise money for a charity, so we decided to challenge our paramedics and doctors to collectively run a marathon by running it in 2.6km stints.

It was hard work but we managed to complete it in three hours 24 minutes and 26 seconds.

A special shout out goes to our doctor Chris Johnson who was fresh off a night shift and ran in his flight suit carrying a kitbag.

At the time of writing this we’ve raised £645, so thanks to everyone for donating.