SPOON bender Uri Geller is playing his part in helping to raise funds for the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust.

Last month he accepted a cheque for £1,200 from a fundraising walk in aid of the charity and according to the trust, he is happy to meet local business people interested in giving financial support to the service.

He is not alone in giving his time to the Thames Valley Air Ambulance which, since it started operating in June 1999, has carried out 1,400 rescues in Bucks and Berks.

The rescues have included landing on a council estate to take a two-year-old child to hospital after she ate her mother's thyroid tablets and flying an injured 20-year-old to Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, after a road traffic accident near Amersham. Both patients survived.

While I was meeting pilot Steve Farmer and paramedics Bob Townson and Martin King, they were called out on an emergency following a riding accident. Within a minute-and-a-half of receiving the call, they were airborne and on their way.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance, which receives no Lottery funding, relies on private funds and volunteers to keep it going.

Bob Curtis, who lives in High Wycombe, is one such volunteer. He is on the Range Rover Register and works for the charity towing the Augusta Italian helicopter to fundraising events.

Andrew Battye, clinicial supervisor at Reading Ambulance Station who lives in Flackwell Heath, is another volunteer. He came in to the trust's base at Grove Park, White Waltham, Maidenhead, while I was there to pick up donation boxes to take to a fete in Marlow.

Paramedic Neil Plant works for the Two Shires Ambulance Service and in common with all the paramedics on the rota system, he is a volunteer. Three full-time pilots are employed by the trust.

"We complement the land ambulance service but we run completely independently as a charity," said fundraising manager Stevie Horton.

"We are fortunate that we were able to start with the latest medical equipment on the helicopter. There is no newer technology."

But next year a three-year funding arrangement with the AA will come to an end and the trust is now looking for a major sponsor, as well as funds to cover the day-to-day running of the service.

"We are keeping our head above water today but in the longer term we are looking for major sponsors," said Stevie.

The Air Ambulance will also collect used toner and laser cartridges, old mobile phones and batteries to recycle for funds.

You can contact the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust on 079 79 604 604 or 01189 365 612.