CROWDS gathered outside the former Laura Ashley in Hereford’s Commercial Street to support the opening of a new charity shop.

The Midlands Air Ambulance Charity has opened its first shop in Hereford, with shoppers spending more than £1,500 on the first day of trading.

Anil Gupta, head of retail for the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “We are extremely grateful to everyone who made the first day such a success.”

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The opening also saw the launch of a community hub located on the first floor of the shop. This facility will be freely available for local groups, organisations and businesses to book in the coming months for meetings, gatherings and other sessions.

Across the summer holidays, the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity will be hosting weekly colouring competitions in its community hub. These are running on August 10, 22 and 31 between 10am and 2pm.

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The Midlands is the largest air ambulance region in the UK, with a population in excess of six million, and the charity is dedicated to delivering advanced patient care across the area, including in Herefordshire.

The charity responds to an average of 4,500 missions each year, with 2,000 of these being air missions tackled by its aircrafts.

Each year, it costs £12 million just to keep the three charity helicopters and fleet of critical care cars operational. Each air ambulance mission costs £2,950 on average and each critical care car mission costs £288. These costs are entirely funded by the public and businesses who support the charity.