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NewsMeet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia
Meet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia

Meet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia

Tags: FiftyUp Club
Last updated by Someone on

Maureen Roberts has many career highlights to share from her 32 years as Australia’s longest serving air ambulance nurse.

In a recent interview on Macquarie Media, Maureen told the story of the pilot of her aircraft passing out at the controls and how she calmly popped his oxygen mask on and brought him around enough to land the plane. And you thought your job had challenges!

Maureen began her career in the Riverina and became interested in the Air Ambulance are speaking to a fellow nurse from the service. She started her career in Albury but is now based at Mascot, near Sydney.

Another memorable moment of her career involved a premature baby in the skies over the Hunter Valley in NSW. The Air Ambulance needed to land but a FA18 Hornet on “critical fuel” took precedence. Maureen remembers saying to the Air Ambulance pilot “the fighter pilot can eject if he needs to but we can’t, we need to land”!

One of the wonderful things about her job, Maureen told us, is that every day is a different experience depending on the patients you're transporting.

“Sometimes you're taking people home to die and they know they're going to die and they have the most amazing conversations with you."

Hear the full interview with Maureen Roberts here

Originally posted on .

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Bronwyn
Bronwyn from NSW commented:

I've bought an investment property (2 bedroom villa) and my 23 yr old daughter rents it. She pays full rent,ie covering my repayments. The plan is that when I'm ready to retire, if she's in a position too, she will buy it as her first property. Only time will tell whether this works for both of us, she's keen but whether she can raise the necessary money. The other benefit is that she really looks after the place as she sees it as "hopefully hers". 

Paul
Paul from ACT replied to Bronwyn:

Brilliant - did the same thing ourselves. Get a good accountant and it will work to your advantage with negative gearing - we get a good tax refund each year letting us go overseas for holidays, mind you others on this forum disagree !! 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Paul:

If you can afford to go on overseas holidays, then you shouldn't be joining this site, to save a few dollars because you don’t need it. Furthermore, I think negative gearing should be abolished because I think that the Government should be giving more tax breaks to first homebuyers and not to people who have investment properties. 

Paul
Paul from ACT commented:

The idea of this site, as I understand it, is to help the over 50s to save money by providing advice, either from fellow members or offers proposed by the organisers - I see this as being pro-active. This "system" (negative gearing) does allow first home owners an opportunity but it is dependent upon a family approach by using their parent's equity to kick start the process, they will eventually own the home/unit when their parents die but in the meantime the kids are not paying "dead rent" and the parents have a tax benefit (holidays) - as I said a win-win for all. If you just sit on your bum and wait for someone to hand it to you instead of going out and grasping it you will end up disappointed and bitter. quod erat demonstrandum ! 

Monty
Monty from QLD commented:

Add Local Government rates which are spiralling out of control and should be means tested for those on fixed incomes. 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Monty:

Local Government rates are spiraling because those in local government are spending money on not-well-though-out needless projects as well as giving themselves a handsome pay hike for what amounts to be incompetence. Local Government projects should be voted on by the rate paying community. If the votes indicate approval for the project, then it goes ahead. None of this "keep the community in the dark" while we spend their money. That is devious BS behavior. 

Craig
Craig from NSW commented:

A fair go is want I want. I have paid for everything I own and have never received Government handouts. I am sure many others in this club can say the same and would appreciate this opportunity for a bit of collective buying power. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Craig:

Great feedback Craig, thank you. I do hope the offers that the FiftyUp Club produces will benefit you! 

Rhonda
Rhonda from NSW commented:

I would like to see Vet's lower their fees for older people whose animals may be their only comfort and source of joy.Of course we also need help in other areas as well, life is a struggle to most after you retire with all the bills etc comeing in. Rhonda from NSW. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Rhonda:

Thank you for your feedback Rhonda! 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Rhonda:

I definitely think vets should give discounts to all pensioners. Also, dentists should lower their fees as well. We are paying too much for simple procedures. It would be lovely if vets opened their doors once every six months to give free treatment to animals of pensioners and low-income earners. We should never let our animals suffer due to lack of funds. 

Jeff
Jeff from NSW commented:

Its about time the hard workers who always pay the tax, get something back 

Lisa - Fifty Up Club
Lisa - Fifty Up Club from NSW replied to Jeff:

Well said Jeff! Hopefully future deals we have running will suit you and the more that sign up to this club the better so spread the word :-D 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

We need a revolution ! It's time for a revolution. Under50s watch out, we 50nUps are on the war path ! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

If we all boycott the banks by all withdrawing our money on an agreed day and also not take out new insurance policies for a week and further, turn off all of our appliances for over a half a day each week and then don't buy petrol for a week, we can SEND A MESSAGE the these big companies that we DO mean business. Then and only then will they take notice of us. We need to do this as a powerful consumer group. We can bankrupt the banks and insurance companies by this method. Also, we need T-shirts that have the message "Don't mix with we 50nUps" and proudly wear it to financial institutions, grocery stores, petrol stations....in fact everywhere that we want to get our message across. Let's just DO IT as Nike would say :) 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

those of us who volunteer should be given a tax break on our travel to the venues where we do this non-paid but never-the-less highly valuable "work" in giving back to society. If the United States Federal Tax system (IRS) can acknowledge it then the ATO can too ! 

Ian
Ian from NSW commented:

It would be good to see the price of motor vehicle registration and green slips be relative to vehicle usage, rather than the current one size fits all approach. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Ian:

Hi Ian, thank you for your feedback! Those areas are the kinds of things the FiftyUp Club will focus on! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

In general were all saying the same thing we won't cheaper electricty and insurance . Iused to be able to pay my bil's , now day's i work twice as hard and i am now working to pay off my every day bill's . It just dons't seem to get any easyer 

David - FiftyUp Club
David - FiftyUp Club from NSW commented:

We're certainly working on insurance and electricity. We hope to have offers available soon. 

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