An Egremont woman is gearing up for her first marathon to raise funds for the air ambulance services that came to the aid of her family who were seriously injured in a head-on collision.

Lisa McCrickard, 41, has signed up for the Manchester Marathon on April 14, hoping to raise £4,000 in donations for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) and North West Air Ambulance (NWAA).

These are the services that swooped in to help her family after a terrifying head-on collision back in October 2018 along the A5086 near Deanscales.

The accident involved her husband Ian McCrickard, 51, and their sons Jack, 14, and Harry, 11.

Describing that dreadful day, Mr McCrickard recalled: "“Another car came round the corner on the wrong side of the road and head-on into us. It was that fast, I couldn’t react.”

Father-of-four Ian was trapped in the wreckage for approximately an hour and 45 minutes, during which their son Jack also had to be cut out of the vehicle by Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.

GNAAS doctor John Ferris said: “On scene we were able to provide advanced pain relief to Ian and his children, who had a number of serious fractures and some internal bleeding.

"By giving them some strong medication, this allowed us to remove them from the car they were in and prepare them for the flight before we took everybody to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.”

Harry sustained a broken shoulder, fractured pelvis, and a bleed to his spleen, while Jack had two broken wrists, a bruised lung, snapped femur and damage to his teeth.

Their father broke both of his legs, his left knee, a big toe, a finger, and sustained lacerations to his hand and arm.

Following the incident, the family have actively rallied behind the cause of GNAAS, even reuniting with one of the critical care teams that helped them.

Joining his mother's fund raising efforts, Jack, earlier this year, climbed Scafell Pike with friends and family to raise money for GNAAS.

Now his mother is running the Manchester Marathon to boost funds further.

She said: “I decided to do Manchester because a lot of people have said it’s a good course to run. I’ve never done a full marathon before, but I’ve done a few half marathons, including Liverpool, Carlisle and the Great North Run.

“It’s so important to keep supporting the air ambulance because still to this day I can't believe they are charity funded. You never know when you might need them.”

GNAAS, which operates purely on charity funding, requires £8.5m a year to sustain its operations.

To manage the ever-increasing demand for its services, the charity is conducting a raffle with a prize of £10,000 - tickets are just £1 each and are currently available for purchase at gna.as/raffle_2023.

To back Mrs McCrickard in her charity mission, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lisa-mccrickard