A Skipton hospital worker is planning to drive an ambulance that was bought on eBay all the way to Romania.

Mark Nicholson, who works in Airedale Hospital’s accident and emergency unit, will set off from his home in Skipton next month to donate the ambulance to Romanian health workers.

He will be joined by Louise Gabrielli, from Keighley, who hopes to become a paramedic, and Samantha Taylor, from Bradford, who works at Leeds General Infirmary.

The friends are now in a race against time to raise around £3,500 which they need to fund the 3,000-mile trip across Europe.

Next Friday, July 17, they are staging a fancy dress fundraising event at Laycock Village Hall and they are also hoping Craven businesses will dig deep and sponsor them.

Mark, 21, Louise, 18, and 24-year-old Samantha bought the second-hand ambulance from internet auction site eBay for just £500.

And now, the ambulance, which has 150,000 miles on its clock and comes from Birmingham, is set for a new life in the poorest country in Europe.

The friends hope to set off on the 3,000-mile journey – which they expect will take from 12 to 14 days – to Oradea, close to the Romanian border, on August 17.

They are fitting the trip in during their annual holidays and will be going by ferry to France, through Paris, Rome, Madrid and Prague and into Romania.

“It’ll be quite a journey. We’re going through Paris, Rome, Munich and into Romania. We want to make a bit of a holiday out of it too,” said Mark.

Once they arrive in Romania, they will work with charity Jubilee Outreach Yorkshire (JOY) to hand the ambulance over to a local health worker.

The charity has sent several former St John ambulances to the country which go on to give several more years’ active service.

Oradea has just 20 ambulances to deal with emergencies and patient transport.

Mark said: “People who sustain life-threatening injuries can wait for the next available ambulance and more than likely die in the process, or rely on friends and neighbours to drive them to hospital.

“As friends and neighbours are not trained paramedics, the outcome is usually poor.”

The fundraising event on July 17 will start at 7pm and will have an emergency services theme with fancy dress, raffle and a bar provided by the Turkey Inn at nearby Gooseye.

Tickets cost £5 and are available from the Turkey Inn and from the reception at Airedale General Hospital.

Anyone who would like to sponsor the team on their journey can contact them at ebay2romania@gmail.com or joyworld.org.uk