Peterborough Ambulance volunteer receives British Empire Medal for services to Emergency Care, Staff Wellbeing and Mental Health
Ben Hawkins volunteers with the East of England Ambulance Service for over 200 hours a week.
An East of England Ambulance Service volunteer has been honoured in the King’s New Year’s Honours List.
Ben Hawkins (26), who lives in Yaxley, will receive a British Empire Medal (BEM) for Services to Emergency Care, Staff Wellbeing and Mental Health.
He currently volunteers around 200 hours a month with the service and has used his time over the past seven years to help countless people in the East of England as well affecting real change in the amount of mental health support emergency responders receive at work.
Ben has been volunteering with the ambulance service since 2017 when he became a volunteer Emergency Responder at the age of 18, covering Yaxley, Stilton, Folksworth and the surrounding villages.
He then moved onto become a full-time call handler in 2019 and worked his way up to becoming a Dispatch Team Leader.
In November 2019, however, he lost close friend and colleague Luke Wright to suicide which led Ben onto working closely with The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) to produce a documentary urging emergency service workers to speak out about their mental health; which has been seen by over 500,000 people.
Ben has also worked closely with Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire Mind (CPSL Mind) to produce a series of blogs regarding mental health in the ambulance service and began a campaign to increase access mental health support.
After being told that six mental health support sessions was sufficient, Ben set about on a campaign that has results in staff being offered unlimited mental health support.
He has also worked closely with CPSL Mind to relaunch their Blue Light Programme; a programme of mental health support for staff and volunteers in the police, fire, ambulance and search and rescue services.
This saw Ben work closely with The Royal Foundation- the charity founded by Prince William and Prince Harry- with the Royal Foundation providing the funding for the programme.
Ben said: “As soon as I turned 18, I knew I wanted to become an emergency responder. I have had some really memorable experiences including shaking hands with a man in my local pub who had been called out to help when he was having a cardiac arrest on a golf course six months earlier.
"I just remember receiving the letter out of the blue, which is really strange because it said ‘on behalf of his Majesty the King from the Cabinet Office urgent and personal.
“I was absolutely screaming with joy as I opened it. It’s just insane, I am just buzzing with excitement. It’s been so hard not to say anything for a few months.”