Paramedic prepares to pound the pavement in honour of patient
A North East Ambulance Service paramedic is tackling the Great North Run in honour of a very special patient.
Four-year-old Kacie Martin, from Wallsend, who has a rare muscle wasting illness called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type1, has been in and out of hospital since she was a baby.
On one of those occasions, in January this year, Kacie was treated by North East Ambulance Service paramedic Marie Trotter for a collapsed lung.
Despite only being with Kacie for less than an hour, Marie was so inspired by the four-year-old that she decided to join the thousands of runners in the Great North Run on Kacie’s behalf later this year.
She hopes to raise enough money to buy Kacie a Lazy Spa hydrotherapy pool for their garden to allow Kacie to have hydrotherapy treatment at home.
Marie, of Ashington, who is based at Ashington station, joined North East Ambulance seven years ago and has been a paramedic for two and half years.
“Working for the ambulance service you obviously see a lot of patients who stick with you but none have made me want to run a half marathon before!” said Marie.
“There was just something about Kacie. She was such a sweet little girl, chatting away at me; even with everything she’s got going on medically, she just doesn’t let anything get to her.
“I told her that night that she was my favourite patient ever. I came away from her thinking she was a really special little girl, she’s one of a kind.”
Kacie’s mum Nicole Williams said: “We couldn’t believe it when we found out Marie wanted to run on Kacie’s behalf. She must see kids every day so to think she’s picked Kacie means a lot to us.
“Kacie uses the jacuzzi at St Oswald’s Hospice and absolutely loves it so we thought it would be really nice to use the money Marie raises to buy her one.”
To sponsor Marie, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Marie-trotter
ENDS
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About North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,500 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS 111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.
In 2015/16 the service answered 1.160 million emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, responded to 295,855 incidents that resulted in a patient being taken to hospital, treated and discharged, 19,949 patients with telephone advice and treated and discharged 85,021 patients at home. In the same year, emergency care crews reached 132,948 Red incidents within the national target of 8 minutes.