For me, my dad was pretty much my hero growing up. He did 25 years in the British Army and saw so many places and did so many things. He then joined the Ambulance Service as an EMT. He served 17 years doing that. He's now 60 and has been retired 2 years, mortgage and debt free.

I thought that if I could be half the man my dad has been, I'd be doing ok.. so I applied for both the Ambulance Service (EMT) and the British Army with a view to join the Royal Army Medical Corps. Once I'd completed all of the preliminary assessments, I'd see who came back to me first and I would take their job.

It turned out to be the Ambulance Service. Funnily enough, The British Army came back to me 2 days later offering my course dates, but I'd already committed to the Ambulance Service.

So, here I am, 15 years into my career. I joined when I was 18. I love so many aspects of the job, I'm now an Emergency Medical Dispatcher. So rather than taking emergency calls, I'm responsible for which calls my resources respond to first. It's an immense amount of responsibility and you have to have a really strong personality, but this job has brought that out of me. I'm incredibly proud of what I do and, aside from the occasional 'down day', I seldom resent it.

I'm actually looking at a new career path within the Ambulance Service as an Educator. Basically I'd be teaching the new staff to do the job I've been doing over the last few years, auditing their progress and re-training where required. Reason for this is because you can pretty much choose your hours depending on what you have going on elsewhere, the work/life balance is better and, after 15 years, the 12 hour day/night/weekend/public holiday shifts are taking their toll..

That's my story..

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