THANK You!Big-hearted readers have dug deep over the last month and have sent in more than £1,000 of donations to the Evening Star Save A Life Appeal.

THANK You!

Big-hearted readers have dug deep over the last month and have sent in more than £1,000 of donations to the Evening Star Save A Life Appeal.

We aim to raise £20,000 to make sure the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service have the best communications equipment to help them save more and more lives.

So far the money has reached a total of £10,650 - which is set to get even higher with pledges of money that continue to come in.

Money has been arrving from all sorts of sources.

Ipswich All Star Brass made a happy tune of charity cash clatter when they went carolling outside Tesco at Copdock just before Christmas.

Braving the cold they managed to hundreds of pounds and sent the SARS fund a cheque for £488.69.

The money will help to buy new trackers, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, pagers and radios among other things for the 56 volunteer doctors who are on call 24 hours a day to save the lives of Suffolk people.

Working alongside paramedics and the other emergency services, the doctors can give vital medicines and treatment at the scene of an accident that paramedics are not trained to do.

With any accident treatment should be given as soon as possible and certainly within the first 'golden hour' to ensure chances of survival and a good recovery.

In some cases it may take a long time to get patients out of the car or a long time to get to hospital so to have trained doctors on scene is necessity.

Buying tracking devices will mean that ambulance control can see which doctor is closest to the scene of an emergency and the navigation equipment will help them get to a crash in the fastest possible time, particularly in remote areas.

Radios will help them radio ahead to waiting hospital staff so they can tell them the exact injuries to expect and the treatment that has been given, ensuring the quickest and best care once they get to the hospital.

* To help us help these heroes of the road, send cheques made payable to the Evening Star SARS Appeal to Geraldine Thompson, Editors Secretary, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.

If you are holding any charity event in aid of SARS let us know about it by calling the Evening Star Newsdesk on 01473 324788 or emailing StarNews@eveningstar.co.uk, leaving us your contact details.