Thanks to you we broke our £10,000 fundraising target for the new air ambulance in just six weeks. In fact the total stands at almost £12,500 – that's nearly £300 a day.

A thrilled Barbara Parish, regional fundraiser for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, said: "That's just incredible. We are extremely grateful and can't thank the Melton Times and all its readers enough.

"I can confirm that we are closing in on our £300,000 fundraising target to become operational and we will be flying from East Midlands Airport from April 1. The helicopter is being given its new livery and all the final checks are being carried out."

Rutland and Melton MP Alan Duncan was also bowled over by your success. He said: "Well done Melton. It's really great news. We never know when we might need the air ambulance and an act of generosity now may be the best few quid you've ever spent."

But let's not rest on our laurels just yet.

The service may be ready to start saving lives in the area, but it gets no Government funding and no money from the Lottery.

Barbara said: "The message now is please keep it going, please keep the money coming in as this vital service needs to raise £1.5m from voluntary donations every year."

And Melton Times editor Michael Cooke said: "To hit our target in just six weeks is amazing, now we want to smash it in the four remaining weeks of our appeal.

"There is still time to get involved, to hold or support an event, and please do tell us what you're doing by calling our hotline on (01664) 412522."

By last Friday you had already raised an incredible £9,958.50, tantalisingly close to our target. So when Melton painted the town yellow – the colour of the livery of the new service – on Bring £1 To Work Day the £10,000 barrier was smashed with pupils, shop staff, factory and office workers raising £2,500 in just 24 hours.

Poignantly, on that very day, the existing county air ambulance was called to airlift a patient to hospital following a head-on collision between Eastwell and Waltham.

The angel of the skies was called to the accident after a Toyota Landcruiser and a Ford Mondeo collided, trapping the driver of the car who was cut free by emergency services. He was flown to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre where he is still being treated but the good news is he is expected to make a full recovery.

But the service he received would not have been possible without the voluntary donations made by you.

Among those rallying to the cause on Friday were workers at the Jeld-Wen stairs factory in Snow Hill, Melton, who raised a fantastic £1,000.

Organiser Pat Checketts said: "We're just over the moon. We were aiming for £1,000 but I was really nervous we might not hit our target. Thankfully we did, and I just can't believe it."

The company raffled off a selection of prizes within work which raised about £500 and then everyone donated £1.