A partnership was announced yesterday that could become an important fundraiser for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The life-saving helicopter is to benefit from a personal and property alarm monitoring system, which is being launched this month.

HomeCall allows homes to be fitted with up to 35 sensors that detect a wide variety of possible dangers, raise alarms or give immediate help.

These include a personal alarm, detectors which recognise serious falls or if the householder has failed to return to bed after a pre-set time delay.

For each customer introduced to the system by medical professionals, the helicopter will receive a monthly cash donation.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance fundraiser Bob Smailes said: "This is an incredibly generous pledge which will guarantee regular income for the charity, helping to secure our long-term future."

The system has been in development for two years through monitoring service provider NHS Careline, manufacturer Tunstall, and Liberty, which provides administration support to manage the scheme.

Bill McPherson, founder of Liberty, said: "We anticipate that 40 per cent of clients will come from health-related referrals, like GPs, Primary Care Trusts or health visitors, so the Yorkshire Air Ambulance should benefit greatly from the scheme.

"The helicopter may be called via the system to a critically-ill person.

"So we decided it would be an appropriate and worthy charity to support."