Two Ambulance Victoria graduate paramedics have walked starkly different paths on their journey to calling the western suburbs home.
It was while working in Timor-Leste that Matt Wilkinson found his calling.
“I was working with AusAID International over in Timor-Leste for a few years and over there I met a lot of paramedics and nurses,” he said.
“I got to know their stories and was inspired to come back to Australia and study paramedicine, which has led me to here.”
Mr Wilkinson said his experience overseas had helped him adapt to life as a paramedic in the west.
“The biggest thing in the west is the diversity,” he said.
“Basically, every patient is a different nationality and has a different story, which is one of the most interesting things for me.
“It can be a challenge, finding out the best ways to interact and make a job work, but I think my experience overseas has helped with that.
“While it’s early stages of my career, it’s good to be in this area to start things off.”
His colleague, Darcy Gleeson, took a different road to the west.
“I was working in finance and decided I wanted a bit of a career change,” he said.
“A friend of mine was studying paramedicine and mentioned he’d helped a crew get someone from clinically dead to alive on the side of a highway.
“I thought that sounded amazing, applied for the course and here we are.”
Mr Gleeson said he was relishing the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds.
“We cover a large area – from the West Gate, down to Werribee, out to Sunshine, Derrimut and some times even Tarneit,” he said.
“I’m really enjoying being out in this side of town to start my career.
“The diversity really ensures we have to be able to adapt to all sorts of different situations.”
