A Northallerton woman has won the Great North Air Ambulance Service’s (GNAAS) annual £10,000 raffle prize.
This year, the GNAAS annual raffle generated over £120,000 with £100,925 in ticket sales and a huge £22,923 in donations.
Supporters from all over the region have won the annual raffle since it started in 2011 and this year it was Helena Taylor that held the winning raffle ticket.
She said: “I didn’t expect to win at all, I don’t win things. I am amazed and shocked – I still can’t believe it. When they rang me, for once in my life I was actually speechless.”
Mrs Taylor, who is retired said: “I plan on spending the money on a couple of trips. I am going to Shetland on a coach trip and hopefully go on the black train – the Grand Central to London.
“I will help family out too and change my car as it is six years old and didn’t think I could afford it before but now I don’t have to worry.”
In her younger years, Mrs Taylor was a biker. She said: “When you spend a lot of time on your motor bike you never know when you will need GNAAS which is my reason for always supporting.
“You do a wonderful job and don’t get enough money.”
In 2018, Mrs Taylor’s husband passed away and since then, she said she hasn’t had the easiest of years.
She said: “It has been rough. My hubby died 18 months ago, and he took a lot of looking after as he couldn’t breathe well. It seemed like it was one thing after another.
“My car broke, things went wrong in the house, shower packed in, central heating broke and I thought when is this going to end, so this has been a lovely surprise.”
Carey Taylor, assistant head of lotteries at GNAAS said: “Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and supported our annual raffle. Our 2019 raffle is now closed but you can join the raffle waiting list to find out when next year’s tickets go on sale via our website.”
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