A WAR hero is helping the North West Air Ambulance raise £500,000 to replace its ageing helicopter.

Gulf War prisoner and Tornado fighter jet navigator John Nichol is backing the appeal for a new EC135 helicopter.

It will give the team of specially-trained paramedics and pilots a better chance of saving the lives of hundreds of accident victims they are called to help every year.

Officials at the vital emergency service - which covers Bolton along with the rest of Greater Manchester, Lancashire Cumbria, Merseyside and Cheshire - are hoping the public appeal will set them well on their way towards a new helicopter.

It will be faster, better adapted for medical emergencies and have a longer range to allow them to reach more casualties.

Operation Eagle will be officially launched on September 6 at Barton Aerodrome, Salford, before a day-long tour across the region in a helicopter identical to the one they hope to buy.

The charity which does not get Government funding, has to find £65,000 every month to keep the helicopter in the air.

The charity's chief executive, Lynda Brislin, said: "John embodies everything the air ambulance and its paramedics stand for - strength, courage, commitment and dedication."

Mr Nichol, who was shot down and captured by the Iraqis in the first Gulf War in 1990 before being paraded on television, said: "Every person in the region should reflect on the fact that you never know when you might need the air ambulance."