Memories of the Norfolk ambulance service
Thursday, 18 August, 2011
A former ambulance officer who worked in Norfolk and Suffolk has fulfilled a life-long ambition of having his memoirs published.
David Sheldrake's book "Under the Blue Lights" documents his time spent with the Norfolk Ambulance Service in the mid to late 70s. David, now 64, said he wrote the book as a mark of
respect for those he served with, especially his chief ambulance officer at the time the late John Daykin. He worked for the Norfolk Ambulance Service but out of Lowestoft station in Suffolk shortly after moving to the resort in 1974.
His memoirs cover the kind of calls he attended, from births to deaths, and from the harrowing to the funny, and detail the camaraderie between crew mates that helped them through. He said: "I wish I could turn my life back to the 1970s and Lowestoft ambulance station and most of all Norfolk Ambulance Service, they were very happy times."
Norfolk Ambulance Service merged with other counties to become the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) and last year David asked EEAST for assistance in
finding someone who served with him and may remember him. EEAST managed to track
down resilience advisor Kevin Janney, who had worked with David and has now written the book's Foreword.
The book is available on Amazon in Kindle version and paperback
