'Being an ambulance mechanic helps me give back'

The London Ambulance Service's (LAS) first female mechanic says joining the service has allowed her to give back to her community.

Charlotte Stanford joined LAS as an apprentice more than a year ago after leaving her desk job in corporate PR.

The 38-year-old, who had never had a manual job before, said: "I knew I wanted to do something different and I didn't want to be behind a desk any more. And while I had no experience with cars, I have always been good at fixing things.

"Now, when I fix a vehicle and get it back on the road, I know it's going out to help someone and could save a life. That's a really nice feeling."

Stanford is based at Fulham Ambulance Station and works in one of LAS's in-house workshops.

The team services and MOTs ambulances and response cars and carries out repairs to ensure crews can respond to patients across the capital.

She said: "When something is wrong with an ambulance, you are looking at all the symptoms – what it sounds like, what it looks like, even the smell.

"We will start to investigate and try to work out the cause. A bit like a paramedic does with a patient.

"You use your experience, your senses and the diagnostic tools to piece it together and get to the root of the problem. And then we fix it."

Stanford said her focus was always on getting vehicles safely returned to frontline duty as quickly as possible.

"We are always mindful of the responsibility we carry," she said. "We don't just fix the engines, we are responsible for maintaining much of the equipment too – like the stretchers, the chairs, the sirens and the blue lights.

"We take a lot of pride in what we do because we know how important these vehicles are."

Stanford is currently the only woman in the mechanic team – something she hopes will change in the future.

Although she is the first woman in the LAS's modern workshop, she is not the only woman to have helped keep London's ambulances running.

During World War Two, women in the Auxiliary Ambulance Service drove the vehicles and treated, and many learned to carry out their own mechanical repairs.

After the war, these women were encouraged to step aside for returning servicemen.

When a London-wide ambulance service was launched in 1965, 6% of the workforce were women.

Today, half of all staff at LAS are women.

"I'm proud to be part of a team that keeps London moving and safe every day," Stanford said.

"I would love more women to join our team. It's such a rewarding and fulfilling job and women should never doubt that they can do this work too."

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