AMBULANCE and nursing staff from York and North Yorkshire were today flying to Africa to share their vital life-saving skills.

Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Services (TENYAS) medical technician Ian Lawrence and his wife Carol, a nurse at York Hospital, were among the team visiting Malawi to teach Basic Trauma Life Support (BTLS) to doctors, nurses, police, soldiers and firefighters.

The team, which also includes Northallerton paramedic Dave Sansum, ambulance training officer Syd Pinkney and accident and emergency consultant Kyee Ham, were leaving England today on the two-week trip.

They first visited the country in 2001 to help establish a pre-hospital trauma team, and eventually, with the help of the Malawi Government, its own ambulance service.

Mr Lawrence, who lives in York, said: "We will be teaching three BTLS courses, including an advanced course, and we will hopefully be running an instructor's course for those who passed at a certain standard last time so they can teach their own people.

"The aim is to make them self-sufficient and help develop a pre-hospital care system which they don't currently have."

The initiative, set up six years ago by the South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, is funded by the National Lottery and the Tropical Health Education Trust.

Based at a hospital in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, the team will instruct their students on a variety of trauma, including head, chest and spinal injuries.

Mr Sansum said: "When we first went they were so eager to learn. It will be interesting to see how the project has developed in our absence."

Updated: 08:57 Saturday, March 22, 2003