A Mid West ambulance volunteer and has been saluted in the King’s Birthday Honours this year for her outstanding commitment to the community during and after cyclone Seroja.
Twelve members of the St John WA team received the distinguished Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) for King Charles’ first honours, including Northampton’s Sub Centre chairperson Amy Teakle, who has volunteered as an emergency medical technician since 2013.
In April 2021, cyclone Seroja hit and caused major damage to Ms Teakle’s home and the sub-centre, and despite little to no communication lines, she was out on the road to assist anyone in need.
While the town was in recovery, she supported emergency service personnel by organising a free sausage sizzle and providing local families with essential school supplies and lunches as children went back to school.
Ms Teakle said she couldn’t have received the honours on her own and thanked the Northampton community for support throughout the years.
“I owe a lot to the rest of the community. Any idea I’ve come up with, whether it’s for the ambulance or the fire brigade generally the whole community back me and help me achieve whatever goal it is that I have at that time,” she said.
As well as the ambulance, Ms Teakle volunteers for SES, works as a community nurse and is also a mother to three children aged 5, 7 and 12.
She said a serious jet ski accident in 2012, which left her in hospital for three months, got her into volunteering.
“It was volunteers that helped me so it was kind of like my way of giving back at the beginning,” she said.
“I want to thank my husband and my kids for putting up with me just upping and leaving in the middle of the night, my kids get dragged to every event, every training I go to. They’re pretty cruisy, they just hop in the car with a minute’s notice and just ride it out.”
A St John WA spokesperson said Ms Teakle was considered the backbone of the Northampton Sub-Centre and tirelessly promoted the importance of undertaking first-aid training and installing defibrillators
“As a first responder and part of a farming family, she is acutely aware of the inherent dangers of working on a farm,” she said.
“Northampton is a small community, and it is not unusual for EMTs to be called out to a job and know the patient personally.
“Ms Teakle has experienced this scenario on several occasions and despite her own feelings she always shows outstanding professionalism, cultural respect and compassion, and this has reinforced her passion for ensuring her farming community are prepared for any emergency.”
MORE KING’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS: PAGES 16-17