Caernarfon ambulance worker to retire after 50 years of service

He went on to spend the next 24 years with the Welsh Ambulance Service. Credit: Welsh Ambulance Service

After fifty years of saving lives, a 73-year-old paramedic from Caernarfon is going out on call one last time.

Gwyn Griffiths joined the Caernarfonshire Fire and Ambulance Service in 1974, since then he has enjoyed a varied career, working both in Wales and England.

The Advanced Paramedic retired in 2015, but could keep away and returned to the service. This time he has assured his colleagues he will retire on Sunday 11, February.

But he doesn't have plans to slow down, the keen hiker says he has plans to mountain in Morocco and across the Himalayas.

The paramedic is a keen mountaineer and wants to keep busy after his retirement. Credit: Welsh Ambulance Service

Mr Griffiths said: “I started as a ‘Trainee Ambulance Man’ before graduating to a ‘Qualified Ambulance Man’ a year later and then a ‘Leading Ambulance Man’ in 1980.

“In 1989, after 15 years of service in Wales, I joined the Mersey Metropolitan Ambulance Service as an Ambulance Training Officer before returning two years later in 1991 as an Ambulance Training Officer with the Gwynedd Ambulance Service as it was back then.”He went on to spend the next 24 years with the Welsh Ambulance Service.

A mountaineer, Gwyn Griffiths also spent his spare time gave up his free time volunteering with the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team for 20 years, in Eryri National Park.

Uncase that wasn't enough, the grandfather has also found time taking on the role of an Associate Lecturer in Healthcare Sciences at Bangor University.

Jason Killens, Chief Executive at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “I would like to thank Gwyn for an impressive five decades of service to Welsh communities and beyond.“He will have positively touched the lives of thousands of people not just during his career with the Welsh Ambulance Service but also during the decades spent volunteering with the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team."

Gwyn said: “When I look back over the last five decades, I am proud to have been involved with so many great organisations and to have worked with so many truly wonderful people.

“Whether it was on shift as a paramedic, volunteering with the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team or helping to train others, I can honestly say that it’s not been a job, it’s been a way of life.”

Mr Griffiths, who has two children with his partner Linda and nine grandchildren, is now looking forward to his retirement and this time, has no plans to return.

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