A CLECKHEATON company has raised more than £18,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The cash was raised over the past two years by staff at Ferno, a world-leading manufacturer of medical equipment to the emergency services.

Staff at the firm have cycled, played football, baked cakes and cooked lunches to raise £18,619.52 for the YAA.

And representatives of the company visited the YAA at Leeds-Bradford Airport to celebrate the fundraising and meet the paramedics to learn about their role as the region’s airborne life savers.

The YAA is an independent charity which needs to raise £7,200 each day to stay in the air. It operates two life-saving helicopters across the Yorkshire region around the clock.

Staff at Ferno, which has also donated emergency medical equipment to the YAA previously, raised funds throughout the year through various initiatives.

Ferno managing director Jon Ellis also cycled hundreds of miles in the Pedal for Pounds bike ride organised by Huddersfield Town. In 2011, he cycled from Brighton to Huddersfield and last year pedalled from Yeovil to the Terriers’ John Smith’s Stadium.

This year, he will cycle from Huddersfield through Hull, Scarborough, Harrogate and back to Huddersfield again as part of the “Keep It Up” campaign.

He said: “The team at the YAA does a fantastic job and everyone at Ferno is very proud to be associated with an organisation that saves so many lives in the Yorkshire region.

“Every year colleagues at Ferno look for new ways to raise funds for this very important charity.”

Ferno has been trading for more than 40 years. The company exports to more than 153 countries worldwide and employs 62 staff at its site in Cleckheaton.