But, as our angel of the skies will cost about £1.5m to run, we want to press on and try to raise thousands more.

The new Derbyshire, Leicester-shire and Rutland Air Ambulance, which will become operational from East Midlands Airport on April 1, gets no funding from the Government or the Lottery and relies solely on your donations.

But is that astronomical sum worth it?

Regional fundraiser Barbara Parish said: "You can't put a monetary value on a life, but Government figures show it costs around £1m for every death of someone under the age of 44 caused by a trauma. If that person's life is saved, the bill is just £128,000."

To break it down, the cost of a death caused by a crash or other accident includes hospital, insurance payouts and a loss of income, among other things.

Each mission averages out to just £1,000, so each £1,000 spent, potentially saves an estimated £872,000 – and a life.

It means that the money you've raised so far could potentially save 12 lives and nearly £10.5m – not bad for six weeks' work.

So what exactly does your money go on?

About £1m of it is spent on the helicopter and that includes pilots, fuel and maintenance.

On top of that it costs £18,000 for the flight suits and helmets and another £18,000 in extra training for the paramedics. A further £34,000 is spent on medical equipment and medicines needed to save lives.

One doctor is paid, but that's it. The rest are volunteers, spending their spare time rescuing us in our hour of need.

But let's not settle with what we've raised, we need to keep the money coming in.

The air ambulance will soon launch a monthly donation scheme so you can give regularly, because even when we've finished our appeal, lives will still need saving.