On the morning of 8 March 2024, Lisa Challinor began her day much as she always did: walking her three dogs with her partner before setting off on a 19-mile training run in preparation for the London Marathon. It was a familiar routine. Within moments, it became a life-altering one.

 

“I checked for traffic before crossing the road,” she recalls. “Then a car came down the road at speed, on the wrong side. It hit me and one of our dogs.”

 

The collision killed Dottie, one of the family’s Labradors. Lisa was thrown through a wall and left with devastating injuries. Conscious throughout, she lay bleeding and unable to move. Her partner ran for help and called the emergency services. A neighbour, formerly an orthopaedic nurse, used a belt to form a makeshift tourniquet as they waited.

 

A land ambulance arrived first, followed shortly by the Midlands Air Ambulance helicopter, which landed in a nearby field. “I knew it was serious as soon as the air crew arrived,” Lisa says. “They were brilliant. They worked with the land team to stabilise me, then sedated me so I could be flown to Royal Stoke Hospital.”

 

Lisa had sustained a catastrophic injury: a high above-knee amputation of her left leg. She had lost a significant amount of blood and would require emergency surgery. “I was told they would try and save my leg,” she says. “But later I was told it wasn’t salvageable.”

 

She spent six hours in theatre followed by a brief period in intensive care.

 

Lisa remembers the professionalism and calm of the Midlands Air Ambulance crew. One of them, critical care paramedic Ben, visited her in hospital two days later. “He came to ICU on the Sunday. That meant a lot,” she says. “I didn’t really grasp how serious it was until later, but I remember hearing them say I was a possible amputee while they were treating me at the roadside.”

 

The team updated her partner, coordinated with the hospital, and made it possible for her to receive major trauma care within minutes. “They saved my life. There’s no other way to put it.” Nineteen days after her surgery, Lisa transferred to Steps, a specialist rehabilitation centre in Sheffield. There, she began learning to walk again with the help of a multidisciplinary team and her first prosthetic limb.

 

With time, she began walking outdoors again on hills, uneven ground, and natural terrain. Her physiotherapists helped her adapt to using the prosthetic in real-world settings. “

 

It was only after the accident that Lisa realised the Midlands Air Ambulance is a charity. “Even working in healthcare, I didn’t know. It’s one of those assumptions people make.”

 

Since then, Lisa and a close friend have raised over £6,000 for the organisation. Her daughter also ran the London Landmarks Half Marathon in aid of the charity.

 

“We’ll always support them. They’re an incredible team.”

 

She is unequivocal about what the service means to her. “I’m incredibly grateful. They were there quickly. They knew what to do. And I’m still here because of that.”

 

Now, she is determined to help others understand how vital the service is, and that it exists without government funding.

 

“They don’t get NHS funding. People assume they do, but they don’t. I’ve spoken about it at events and even joined a visit to Parliament with the team. It’s important work, life-saving work, and it needs support.”