Famous paramedic from Sheffield celebrates 20-year anniversary with Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Sammy Wills, who is a regular on the hit television show Helicopter ER joined YAA on September 21, 2002, when the charity was a fraction of how well known it is now. The charity flew from Leeds Bradford Airport and its base was a small cabin.

At one point, Mrs Wills was the only female crew member but now she said “we’ve taken over the locker room.”

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Mrs Wills said: “When I started at Yorkshire Air Ambulance, no one recognised that we are a charity; they wouldn’t have thought to have put the two words together. Now we’re recognisable all over the world.”

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Not only has Mrs Willis reached 20 years at the YAA but in January 2023, she will celebrate 30 years of being a paramedic at Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Peter Sunderland, Chairman of Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said: “We would like to congratulate Sammy and express our huge gratitude and thanks for her 20 years of dedication to our Charity. Sammy’s enthusiasm for her role never falters and she is an asset to our crew and a firm part of the greater YAA family.”

Over her 20 years at the YAA, Mrs Wills has become a famous face for the charity, as well as on television. She stars in the hit television show Helicopter ER, and she admitted that she does get recognised a lot in public.

Mrs Wills said: “What is embarrassing though, is when you get recognised in your swimming costume when you are abroad! I’ve even been on a bus in Kenya and a Scottish lady turned round and said ‘`I know you, you’re on the helicopter’.”

From loving aviation as a child, Mrs Wills is one of very few current staff members who has had experience flying all three models of helicopters at the YAA. She said that a lot has changed over the years with the aircrafts and there is now more space to treat patients.

The YAA is an independent charity which provides a lifesaving rapid response emergency service to five million people across four million acres of Yorkshire.

In 2021, more than 1,700 incidents across the region were responded to by the YAA.