PARENTS who lost their teenage son in a motorbike accident a month ago are campaigning for a change in the rules governing lottery funding to help the County Air Ambulance.

Heartbroken William and Mary Berisford said their 18-year-old son, Stuart, was deeply concerned about medical issues when he was alive - particularly following the downgrading of Kiddermin-ster Hospital.

He believed the air ambulance should not be solely dependent on charitable donations - and so, even though it was not able to save him after a tragic accident at Hampton Loade, his parents believe he would have wanted them to fight for it on his behalf.

The family, including Stuart's twin brother, Luke, 23-year-old brother, Craig, and 20-year-old sister, Christieann, have already raised £1,000 for the organisation in donations and are now campaigning for it to become eligible for lottery funding.

"It's something that Stuart would have wanted because he was a great campaigner for trying to keep things going to save lives," Mrs Berisford said.

"When the A&E went to Worcester it was Stuart's greatest fear that ambulances wouldn't be able to get people from Kidderminster in time to save their lives.

"So I think he'd be very proud of us raising the money for air ambulance - it's what he would have wanted."

The 47-year-old said the former King Charles I pupil, who was a welder at Taylors in Droitwich, had written to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, "begging" for Kidderminster Hospital not to lose its blue light facilities.

"He didn't gain trying to save Kidderminster Hospital but he might gain something for the air ambulance," she said.

Explaining the air ambulance had attended the accident in which her son died on August 7, she added: "We just want to give something back.

"I just feel so much that that's what Stuart would have wanted and I have said we will go as far as we possibly can to try and do something about it."

She urged anyone who wanted to help their campaign to write, stating their agreement that the air ambulance should be eligible for lottery funding, to her neighbour, Jayne Cave, at 354 Chester Road North, Kidderminster.

Stuart's father, Mr Berisford, 50, added: "We just hope that from all of this something good can come and we can get some kind of positive response in terms of funding for the air ambulance."

The County Air Ambulance's fund-raising development manager, Paul Weir, said his organisation welcomed the Berisford family's plea for a change in the lottery funding regulations.

"I'm sure most people in the street believe the air ambulance is part of the overall emergency services and the fact it isn't and can't get lottery funding is clearly a major anomaly," said Mr Weir.

"Being able to access lottery funds would allow us the flexibility to apply specific projects within the operation of the service."

The family is also planning to buy a bench in their son's memory for Willowmarsh Pools, where he used to go carp fishing.