When Claire’s son collapsed from heat exhaustion from a 10km race, our volunteers were able to give him the treatment and care he needed. 

Claire wanted to give something back, so in 2019 she ran the London Marathon for St John Ambulance. But when she finished Claire realised she wanted to do more, so she decided to volunteer as a first aider. 

 

"In 2018 my family and I were running the Manchester 10K. 

My son Joseph never expected not to finish the race. 

We set off. It was a really, really hot day. By the time they got to about mile five and a half, Joseph was seeing the finish line, but that didn't exist and he just collapsed with heat exhaustion. 

St John Ambulance were there within seconds.  

There was a doctor there. He told me not to panic and administered treatment. 

If St John hadn't have been there, I can't imagine what would have happened, he would have been very poorly. 

I ran the London Marathon for St John. I wanted to raise the money to pay back what people had given for my Joseph. 

But then when I finished, I realised, I wanted to do more. 

I’d never really thought about volunteering because we were just too busy, but I was astounded by how caring the St John Ambulance volunteers were and I decided I wanted to be part of it. 

Before Joseph had collapsed, I didn't know much about St John.  

I didn't know any of them were volunteers.  

I didn't know they were a charity either, and it was all funded by money donated to them. 

You know, it can happen to anybody. Nobody knows when they're going to need treatment. 

Donations saved my sons life, without them they wouldn’t have the medical equipment to save my Joseph when they needed them."