By Major Andy Pilling, Company Commander No 1 (Minden) Company
When a cadet joins the Army Cadets they start a personal cadet journey that can take them to their 18th birthday, at that time they will typically leave and start their next journey in life.
Cadet Sergeant Major Taylor joined the Army Cadets when she was 12 years old and this month she reaches the age of 18 and will leave to embark on her career as a paramedic.
As part of her 4-star qualification she combined being in college, being a cadet and additional volunteering, which helped her decide on a future career. For 6 months she gave up a full days to volunteer as an ambulance cadet with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).
To start with she worked with the Patient Transport Service, helping to transport non-emergency patients to and from hospitals. Starting at the ambulance station at 5.45 am every Monday and completing a full shift gave her an appreciation of what the ambulance staff do day in day out.
Following that she did training and assisted with response ambulances, teamed up with paramedics. On her first day there was no sitting about. After only 10 minutes the ambulance was deployed to an emergency. Over her attachment to the response ambulances, it gave her a real insight to the real-life experiences of being a paramedic. It’s highs and lows and the lifesaving work they do.
Her final insight to NWAS was a day with the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART). The HART are the specialist paramedics who have the training and capability to deal with incidents that a regular ambulance would not be trained or equipped to deal with.
Following the 6 months of training and first-hand experience has convinced Cadet Sergeant Major Taylor that her future is as a paramedic. She will later this year start on her training as a future paramedic.
Cadet Sergeant Major Taylor gave a presentation about her experience with NWAS to her fellow cadets along with RSMI Craddock, Major Pilling and Lt Mundey. The presentation being the final part of her volunteering section for her 4 Star.
Cadet Sergeant Major Taylor may leave the ACF, but she will leave having achieved a great deal and had experiences that only the ACF can offer.
Even though she leaves, her loss will be felt by the cadets and staff in No 1 (Minden) Company. We all wish her well in her new journey and future career.
