DEDICATED first-aiders in Amesbury who freely give their time to help others are appealing for help themselves.

Members of the Amesbury division of St John Ambulance have had to abandon their headquarters building in Parsonage Road after it was condemned as unsafe.

The building, which has been their home since the early 1950s, is beyond repair and the volunteers now face the task of raising around £100,000 to pay for the demolition of the building and the construction of a new one.

It means the division's adults, cadets and 'badgers' - the youngest members of the organisation - have had to find alternative accommodation for their training nights.

At the moment they are renting space at Antrobus House but, as Divisional Superinten-dent Bob Gambon explained, this is eating into valuable funds.

Mr Gambon (44), who joined the division as a cadet when he was eight years old and has worked his way up through the ranks to become superintendent, said they had a "fundraising mountain" ahead of them.

Because the division had two four-wheeled drive ambulances, he said, they were frequently called upon to attend events well outside their area, often in neighbouring counties.

He said: "We cover a vast area but, even in Amesbury itself, we are kept busy because the town is growing so much.

"The funds that we do raise are already used to meet many demands in terms of upgrading equipment and maintaining our vehicles."

He said morale among the 40-plus members was low because of the lack of a home and they needed to get something up and running soon.