A VALE-BASED housing and care provider has raised more than £3,600 to help save lives across Wales by funding emergency helicopter missions.

In total 60 staff from the resources team at Hafod raised £3,608 for Wales Air Ambulance, their 2016 chosen charity.

Raffles, cake sales, dress down days, sponsored runs and music nights all helped, along with a generous donation of £500 from the committee of the Glynogwr and District Show.

Jenny Hutchison and Louise John from Hafod’s finance team led the fundraising activities and were overwhelmed by the support.

Ms Hutchison said: “We chose the charity as they provide such an important service which is funded solely by donations.

"We were thrilled to handover the cheque and to know that we are helping to support such a great organisation.

"We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us including our many contractors who donated some amazing raffles prizes.”

Each of the charity’s missions costs around £1,500 and Wales Air Ambulance needs to raise £6.5 million every year to fund its services.

Catrin Hall, community coordinator, Wales Air Ambulance said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to the staff at Hafod Resources, for their outstanding support.

"As a charity we rely on kind donations to fund our operations, and their donation will help to fund more than two of our missions.It is support like this that helps to keep us flying.”

Hafod would like to thank Kingfisher Developments, Willis Construction, Cosgrove Construction, Holbrook Construction, Pentan Architects and Taylormade Building Contractors Ltd for donating raffles prizes.

Wales Air Ambulance provides emergency air cover for those who face life-threatening illness or injuries. Since the charity launched on St David’s Day in 2001, they have completed more than 25,000 missions.