Grant Hirst never intended to become a paramedic.
The then-25-year-old had taken a day off work to see a movie, and happened to park outside a St John building in Auckland. They were hiring, and he popped in for a look out of curiosity.
“Then I got a phone call: ‘Can you be at [the station] on Monday?’ ‘Oh, yeah, what’s that for, a medical or something?’ ‘No, no, that’s when the training course starts’,” he said. “That’s the way it was those days.”
That was in 1975. On August 30 this year, Grant was awarded his 50-year gold service medal for ultra-long service at Thames’ Hato Hone St John service awards ceremony. The accolade is reserved for the organisation’s longest-serving and most dedicated members.
Grant has served in a multitude of roles at St John over the years – Pukekohe station manager, area committee, events officer, Central East events operations support officer and paramedic, national motorsport team leader, and health shuttle driver. In 2002 he was also admitted to the Order of St John, where he currently holds the title of Commander.
Grant has seen a lot of changes in his half-century with St John.
“When I first started, it was, ‘here’s your keys’… My first shift on the road was the 11pm-7am night shift that I rode single crew,” he said.
“So, straight out of training school, wet behind the ears and you’re working by yourself in the truck. I’m pleased those sort of things don’t happen today.”
Throughout Grant’s many roles in St John, one constant has been his love of motorsport. Working in the organisation gave him the opportunity to combine his passion with his career.
Grant would regularly give up his weekends to volunteer as an on-site first aid responder at motorsport events across the country.
“I was working at Pukekohe one day and there was a big crash… I said, I’ve got to do this better,” he said.
“I talked to the chief ambulance officer about [forming] a specialist team in motorsport. And he gave me the okay to call for a meeting and see who would be interested.”
This was the late 90s, and in 2000 the motorsport medical team was made official. All their training was done on their own time; their time at events was still volunteered. But the team was well-recognised as being very good at what they did, Grant said.
In 2019 he took on a full-time role as the national motorsport team leader, and advocated hard for his team. By the time Covid-19 was over, his team was getting paid for attending most events.
It had been really special working in events, he said.
“Motorsports was very good to me.”
It’s not just events work that’s kept Grant in St John over the years, though.
For him, the main reason to stay was the people – both his colleagues, and the wider community they served. “The people that work with St John’s are friggin’ amazing. Especially in the early days when I started, everybody knew everybody,” he said.
“But the biggest impact is the [patients] that you work with.It’s not the big headline-grabbing things that get you. It’s turning up in the middle of the night because Granny slipped going to the loo and can’t get back up off the floor.
“And you sit there and you make her a cup of tea and she gets you the scone that she made the day before and stuff like that.”
It was a privilege to be let into people’s lives during their most vulnerable moments, he said.
“You have to turn up in the middle of the day or the middle of the night to their private address and they’re actually inviting you into their property, you know?”
Grant left St John in November, 2024. But now, 50 years after his time with St John began, he’s still involved with the organisation as a volunteer health shuttle driver.
“I still do my bit… I think [the shuttle’s] a pretty cool service,” he said. “It’s been a pretty cool life. Some really good stories, some bad stories, but there’s been more ups than downs. I’ve met some really nice people.”
