THE ominous sky was churning out heavy sleet and the night was closing in as Roy Thorpe turned his car for home.

It was about 3pm on January 31 and Mr Thorpe steeled himself for the demanding journey as he negotiated his way along the winding country roads.

Not familiar with the Teesdale landscape, the bend at Burnt Houses took him by surprise. As he lost control of the car, the vehicle veered across the road and ploughed into an oncoming Ford Galaxy.

"That's all I remember of the accident," said Mr Thorpe, 38. "I'm told that I got out of the vehicle and I seemed to be okay. The police even told the air ambulance which was on its way that it wouldn't be needed; but seconds later I collapsed."

Unbeknown to everyone, Mr Thorpe, of North Road, Darlington, had suffered severe facial fractures to his upper jaw, nose and left eye socket. His brain was leaking fluid and his mobile phone, which had been tucked into his top pocket, had crushed a rib as the seatbelt tightened across his chest.

The speed with which he got to hospital was imperative to his future recovery, which was where the air ambulance came into its own.

Research has shown that medical treatment given within the "golden hour", the hour immediately after an accident, dramatically increases the chances of survival and recovery.

Accident response times will be boosted considerably if the Darlington-based charity, Great North Air Ambulance, can raise enough funds to base a second helicopter at Teesside Airport.

As of July 8, a second air ambulance will be based at the airport but only on a month's trial. Campaigners are hoping to raise more than £1m to make it a permanent fixture.

On the day of Mr Thorpe's accident, the air ambulance was scrambled from Blyth, in Northumberland, and landed next to him within eight minutes. It then whisked him to the safety of the then Dryburn Hospital, in Durham, within three minutes.

"If it wasn't for the air ambulance, the very least I could have suffered would have been some form of brain damage, and at worst the mortuary slab," said Mr Thorpe, who has an 11-year-old daughter, Natalie.

"A road ambulance would have taken more time to get to me and that could have been fatal."

Mr Thorpe was later transferred to Sunderland Royal Infirmary and yesterday he praised staff for the treatment he has received. He underwent a nine-hour operation after the accident, during which surgeons inserted four permanent titanium plates in his cheeks and forehead to help mend the fractures.

Mr Thorpe previously worked as a canvasser for the One Wish Lottery, which raises funds for local hospices including St Teresa's, in Darlington.

He returned to work in April but shortly afterwards went on to join the Great North Air Ambulance, working full-time as a canvasser.

He said: "People often don't give a thought about air ambulances. I know I didn't, but we do get in our cars and travel to places where a road ambulance couldn't get to.

"You never know when you might need it".