A Bowthorpe doctor is going the extra 26 miles in her lifesaving work by raising money for the region's air ambulance.

Dr Vicky Smith has been flying emergency missions with the East Anglian Air Ambulance since last July.

But the 35-year-old is not content with just putting her emergency medicine training into good use and is now in training to run the London Marathon to raise money for the charity too.

The 12-hour shifts mean the former Aylsham High School pupil, who specialises in accident and emergency medicine, has to work hard to find time to train for the 26-mile run.

Several times a week she has been running the five miles from her home in Bowthorpe to the EAAA base at Norwich International Airport and back again. She says the difference the team can make to people who are critically ill gives her the motivation to keep running.

She said: 'I think you can really see first-hand the difference you are making to people's lives and it's not just the people who are injured but their families as well who can see that as a team you are doing everything you can for the patient.'

She said one of the best aspects of her work with the EAAA was getting the opportunity to find out how patients are after treatment.

Dr Smith said: 'Working in hospitals you see lots of patients and often don't get to follow up on how they are doing.

'On this job you are usually looking after one patient and have the opportunity to find out what happened to them.

'We had a case where we performed prolonged CPR on a patient who survived and they came back to chat to us from a clinical governance point of view.'

Dr Smith is also very aware of how donations can help to improve the care she can offer patients.

She said: 'The are some pieces of equipment we are looking to purchase.

'For example some of the money raised could be going towards some automated CPR machines which would be very useful in our work.'

To support Dr Smith's fundraising efforts, visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VictoriaSmithEAAA