Yesterday, Hato Hone St John paramedic Gavin Weastell was honoured at the service’s awards in Dunedin for his 50 years with the charity.
Mr Weastell spent his youth in Dunedin, and worked for the city as a paramedic for a big chunk of his career.
From the age of 11, Mr Weastell was a cadet, before picking up a volunteer shift in 1979 while working at the Hillside Workshops.
"I was one of those ones that was affectionately known as a St John’s brat. I’ve been involved since forever" Mr Weastell said.
Back in the day, most volunteers were full-time tradesmen.
He got fully qualified and became full time during the 1980s and started working at the Hillside station.
There was not much he had not seen on the job. He had delivered eight babies — two of those midair in a helicopter — and been witness to countless deaths.
"The job has completely changed, for the better in some ways — when I started you needed a first aid certificate and would just go from there."
You had to be a specific type of person to handle the type of situations you would go to and have to deal with, he said.
Mr Weastell was one of the paramedics called to the Aramoana massacre and to the scene of the Bain murders.
"It’s a job you can’t just ‘harden up’ to, but you do have to be able to put that to one side and carry on, otherwise you just wouldn’t last."
"I’ve been winched on to a Korean fishing boat 150 nautical miles south of Bluff ... and I’ve been to Enderby Island to evacuate a cruise ship passenger — that was a long way."
He was involved in a rescue where he was lowered to pluck a fisherman from the sea at St Clair Beach in 2013.
"The photo is a lot more impressive than it actually was. I didn’t even get my feet wet."
He was also part of the little-known national motorsport medical team, a group of seasoned emergency medical technicians with a passion for fast cars and burnt rubber.
"Up until last year I was looking after everyone in the V8 Supercars at Pukekohe in the North Island for the last 10 years."
He has worn countless hats: he has been a station manager, helicopter paramedic and an intensive care paramedic — and recently started to join his two passions of saving lives and motorsports.
He always said he would give up night shifts at 65, a milestone he hit two years ago.
"That’s also when I gave up being on the road ... It was time to give up and now I work for St John events."
A few years ago he made the move to Cromwell to take on the new role.
These days, he can often be found at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground as the on-site medical provider.
It helps he gets to watch the world’s brand new cars doing crash tests on the ice slopes of the Cadrona Valley.
"They do the winter testing up there and I’ve been spending the past three winters on Mount Pisa looking after the testers, and watching the flash new cars.
"What I used to have to take leave to go to is now my job."
For now, he was honoured to accept the award, but whether he reached the 60-year milestone was yet to be seen, he said.
