Meet some of the Wales Air Ambulance staff working this Christmas

Meet just some of the staff who will be working on board the Wales Air Ambulance this Christmas.

While many of us will be spending Christmas Day tucking into the turkey and enjoying a festive tipple with family and friends, many of the frontline staff on board Wales Air Ambulance will be spending their day working.

For the Wales Air Ambulance, Christmas is very much a “normal day” at work, but with an extra bit of festive sparkle and camaraderie.

The crew will be waiting in the wings to help those in need across Wales and will do all that they can to turn what might be the worst day of somebody’s life into a better outcome.

The all-Wales Charity needs to raise £11.2 million every year to keep its helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the road all over Wales, 24/7 – even on Christmas Day.

The service is delivered via a unique Third Sector and Public Sector partnership.

The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) supplies highly skilled NHS consultants and critical care practitioners who work on board the Charity’s vehicles.

Carl Hudson

Dad of two Carl Hudson is in his 30th year of frontline NHS Service, spending more than 20 years of service working for the Wales Air Ambulance.

He is based at the Caernarfon base having started there at the beginning of the North Wales Operations in 2003.

He has worked many Christmas Day’s helping to serve the people of Wales and says there is always a good atmosphere amongst colleagues.

Carl, 49, of Anglesey, said: “Having been a frontline paramedic for pretty much my entire adult life, working Christmas Day is very much an accepted part of working life for me.

“Over the years, I have worked many Christmas Days, and although anyone would much rather be at home with their family than in work on Christmas Day, it’s really not at all bad. D

“Due to the long hours that we work, it’s often the case that you actually see more of your work colleagues than you do of your family, so your colleagues are very much considered as your ‘work family’.

“This year, for my family and I, Christmas Day will be pushed into Boxing Day, which will become our Christmas Day instead. In this line of work, it is accepted by your family that your Christmas family dinner is very much a moveable feast!

“Hopefully, we will not be needed on the big day, because that means that everyone is safe and well.

“However, if we do attend an incident, although we may go home with a few remnants of the day in our minds, we will go home knowing that we have helped someone when they most needed it and provided the very best care possible.”

Corey Mead

Corey Mead, aged 26, of Mountain Ash, has been working for the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) onboard Wales Air Ambulance for two years after joining the service in January 2022.

This will be his first year working for the Charity on Christmas Day.

A Critical Care Practitioner’s (CCP’s) shifts are split between working onboard the Wales Air Ambulance and in the EMRTS Critical Care Hub, based in Ambulance Control in Cwmbran. Corey will be monitoring every 999-call made in Wales and will identify which of those requires advanced critical care.

“I will be working Christmas Day from 7am to 7pm at the Critical Care Cub in Ambulance Control in Cwmbran, monitoring the 999 calls that come through,” he said.

“I usually volunteer to work at Christmas. I am not married or have children, whereas my colleagues do. I’d rather work to enable them to spend time with their families on Christmas Day.!

“This year, Christmas Day will be celebrated with a family get together on Boxing Day with a dinner and all the trimmings. Then I am back to work first thing on New Year’s Day, so no New Year’s Eve parties this year!

“I will also be celebrating my Christmas the second week of January when a few of my colleagues and I go skiing along with some of our other friends and their partners.

“As I will be working on the desk looking at all the critical calls coming in, it will be busy. Hopefully we will have a Christmas dinner cooked for us, so even if it’s eating it on my desk, I should be able to have something festive.

“You have to be organised early when it comes to Christmas. We work anti-social hours, and when I am working in Cardiff, where the service operates 24 hours, I can be working nights shifts as well.

“We are a fairly small team and in the run up to Christmas in between calls we try and all cook together and eat food together. It’s like spending Christmas with your second family.

“We usually get called to road traffic accidents, perhaps people going to see friends and family, or children who have fallen off a bike or scooter that they have had for Christmas or patients who have suffered a heart attack after Christmas dinner for example.”

“We are a small team which thrives on supporting each other.”

Simon Cartwright

Critical Care Practitioner (CCP), Simon Cartwright, will be spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day working at the Wales Air Ambulance’s base in Welshpool.

It will be his first Christmas working for the Wales Air Ambulance, having joined the Charity two years ago, and he said he is looking forward to working with the team.

Christmas Day for him will start like any other operational shift but with a bit of festive morale from his colleagues.

He said: “Like any other day, we will check the medical kit and equipment to ensure we are ready for the day and prepare the aircraft and rapid response vehicle. The day very much depends on whether we will be dispatched to anyone who needs us across Wales.

“We are planning on making a team Christmas roast dinner and will be eating plenty of mince pies.

“Extra efforts are made at Christmas to increase morale. We have our Christmas tree up and we do a ‘Secret Santa’ on base. It’s my first Christmas with the Wales Air Ambulance so I’m looking forward to working with the team. There’s always good camaraderie. We are a small team which thrives on supporting each other.”

Simon will work a 12-hour day from 8am to 8pm and will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day evenings with his girlfriend, her family and also his own family.

He said: “I will hopefully have some Christmas leftovers when I go home on both days – I love a Christmas dinner. I have Boxing Day off so will have a good catch up properly with everyone then. For me, the best part of working at Christmas is knowing that we are here to help someone in their time of need.”

“It’s like spending the day with my ‘second family.’”

Rhyan Curtin

This year, Critical Care Practitioner, Rhyan Curtin, who works on board Wales Air Ambulance, will be holding his Christmas Day celebrations a day early on Christmas Eve with his three-year-old son, fiancée, and family.

It is the second time he has worked on Christmas Day since his son was born, but says he is happy to be able to serve the people of Wales when they need the service the most.

Rhyan said: “We will be having our family Christmas on Christmas Eve and will be having food, exchanging presents and being together as a family then. We still have the build up to Christmas and I am off on Boxing Day, so it is only one day.

“My son is still a bit too young to know so hopefully next year I will be off when he starts to know more about Christmas.

“However, everyone is mindful that it is Christmas Day and if there are any difficult cases, we are there to do our job and be professional. It is a serious job, and we are unfortunately going to attend incidents in which we will have to break bad news to patients or families on Christmas Day.

“For some, it won’t turn out to be the Christmas they expected. It can be a sombre time at Christmas, and it makes you reflect about your own family even more so.

People may think Christmas Day is quiet for the Wales Air Ambulance, but from experience, it can be a busy day. Everyone is rushing around trying to get to places, people are stressed, and they have lots to do and people to see.

“It’s a typical day and we will attend a variety of incident whether that is a RTC, a cardiac arrest or even domestic incidents.”

Jez James

Jez James has worked as a medic for the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) on board Wales Air Ambulance for six years, predominantly based in Cardiff.

Dad of one Jez, 50, will be working the night shift on Christmas Eve from 7pm to 7pm manning all of the 999 calls, identifying those which require critical care interventions. He will work with an allocator to dispatch the Wales Air Ambulance when required.

He said: “With one aircraft that works 24/7 covering Wales in the night, my job will be to ensure our crews are sent to the most critical jobs across Wales as well as monitoring where Santa is flying in his sleigh, as we don’t want him conflicting with the helicopter and vice versa.

“I will be live tracking him all night.”

Jez has worked twice on Christmas Day since he has worked for Wales Air Ambulance and before that was on duty over Christmas while working as a paramedic.

He has missed several family Christmas’ including ones with his son, who is now aged 11 years.

He said: “My son is older this year, so it’s not too bad. He has asked if I can come home as soon as possible so he can open his presents.

“It’s not a long drive home so hopefully I will be back home early this year. I will probably come home from the shift, watch the presents being opened, have some breakfast and then go back to bed for a few hours before Christmas dinner.

“I have missed Christmas day with my son a few times, which is quite hard. They don’t stay young for long! One year, I remember watching my son open his presents on Christmas Day via Facetime. When you sign up to the job, you know working unsocial hours comes part and parcel of the job. The team are very good and will often change shifts for those with younger children at Christmas as well as on special occasions.”

Jez said working at Christmas is like any other day.

“It’s very much business as usual. We tend to have local businesses donating us food on Christmas Day which is always a massive feel-good boost. With places being closed on Christmas Day we appreciate it massively.”

“It is an extremely rewarding job, and it is a privilege to serve the people of Wales at Christmas and throughout the year.”