Airborne mercy service GNAAS named Community Champions at Tees Business Awards
Its green, white and yellow helicopters are a familiar sight in Teesside’s skies.
And now the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is flying even higher after winning the Tees Business Awards’ Community Champions title.
The service – based in Urlay Nook near Eaglescliffe – covers an area of 8,000 square miles, from the tip of North Yorkshire to the Scottish Borders and across to Cumbria.
And just as the Hardwick Hall awards ceremony was beginning, the GNAAS proved its worth yet again, with the service’s critical care team based in Cumbria despatched to the Isle of Man to quickly transport a patient to hospital after a sport and leisure incident.
To win the Community Champions award, presented by Grant Glendenning, CEO of category sponsor The Education Collective, the service pipped Cygnet Law and Stockton microbrewery Three Brothers Brewing to the prize.
But the fact that Three Brothers Brewing dedicated their recent beer festivals to raising funds for the GNAAS showed the breadth of support the service attracts across its adopted home.
After picking up the award, GNAAS head of income and engagement, Ashleigh Chapman, paid tribute to the service’s “incredible team” which, in 2024-25, attended nearly 2,000 incidents.
She said: “We have a team of dedicated people working tirelessly every day to make sure we can be there for those in the community who need us on their darkest day.
“Nobody wakes up thinking they will need the air ambulance, but the reality is it could be anybody – a young child, a grandparent, a brother or sister. So, to know we’ve got the recognition here tonight for what we do is incredible.”
It costs £9.6m a year – nearly £26,000 a day – to operate the service, which is 100% reliant on charitable funds.
But not only are costs rising, replacement aircraft will be needed soon – and to that effect, an “Operation SOS – Secure Our Service” campaign to raise £2.5m is underway.
Ashleigh explained: “We are at a critical time for the charity. We currently have two helicopters, but they’re coming to the end of their lives, really, and they no longer produce those helicopters, so we’re having to look for alternatives.
“We’ve launched a critical campaign to fund a third helicopter or three new ones, so by October, hopefully we’ll be getting three new fleet – not brand new, but new to us.”
And thanking people across the Tees Valley for their support, she added: “People understand the difference we make and that it’s only us who can deliver this service in the region.
“It’s a consultant-led service – we deliver interventions at the roadside that if we weren’t there could only be delivered in hospital. So, it’s the skills we bring and the time in which we bring them that truly does save lives.”
The Community Awards prize was one of 11 presented on the big night at an evening organised by Tees Business, in conjunction with IT experts razorblue.
Sky Sports presenter hosted the event, which was attended by 340 people and featured a three-course meal, a Q&A session with former Boro and England boss Steve McClaren and fundraising for The Teesside Charity.
For more coverage, see the archive section of the Tees Business Awards page.
There’ll also be a Tees Business Awards supplement in the summer issue of Tees Business magazine.
To enquire about taking space in issue 46, call 01642 450255 or email [email protected]
Click HERE to see a full list of the sponsors, winners and finalists from the 2026 Tees Business Awards.
