PARAMEDIC Bryan Hopkins has seen some harrowing sights during his career, which spans more than three decades.

Mr Hopkins, 62, who has been honoured by Great Western Ambulance Service for his long service, has been involved in several daredevil rescues, horrendous crashes and personal tragedies since he joined the service 30 years ago.

"I have been involved in a few helicopter rescues including one from the cricket pitch in Thornbury," Mr Hopkins told the Gazette.

"I was sent into the Severn Tunnel after a train crash in December, 1991. That was pretty frightening."

But for Mr Hopkins, who has been based at the GWAS depot in Almondsbury covering South Gloucestershire for most of his career, the worst cases have always involved children.

"I have had to go to a number of cot deaths and that is always awful," he said.

"I just feel for the parents who feel guilty and will always ask what if?"

Mr Hopkins, who lives in Patchway, was an emergency paramedic for 27 years and has also worked from the Falfield ambulance station, on cardiac shuttles in Bristol and the service's central resource centre.

He now helps to run the patient transport service taking out-patients to hospital appointments.

"I still get to meet members of the public and that is what I have enjoyed so much," he said.

"But it is less stress and I see less trauma now."

Mr Hopkins was paid just £39 a week when he first started crewing ambulances in April, 1978.

Since then, he said the ambulance service has improved drastically.

"The advancement in training compared to what I received when I first started is unbelievable," he said.

"And with emergency care practitioners a lot more work is being done in the community."

Mr Hopkins received the Queen's Medal for long service in 1998 and the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002.

Last week he was presented with a 30-year honorary medal from the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire John Bush, along with a number of his colleagues including Christopher Honeybourne, a paramedic based at Falfield, Brian Moss, an ambulance care assistant in Dursley and Jack Prosser, a retired operation station officer in Yate.

GWAS chief executive Tim Lynch said: "Our award winners have demonstrated tremendous commitment, dedication and professionalism in carrying out their duties with the ambulance service.

"They have shown great loyalty, with some having spent all of their working lives in the profession."