I work shifts so there is no Monday to Friday timetable; a normal day is 9am till 7pm in the summer. We operate seven days a week, 365 days a year, from Caernarfon airport. Some of the days are gorgeous there, looking out on to the mountains of Snowdonia.

After looking at the handover notes we will get the aircraft out of the hanger, help the pilot get it on to its pad and do the morning checks. We have to run both engines and clean them out. After that we check our ambulance electrical devices. There is a morning brief from the online duty pilot about the weather, and what needs servicing.

When a 999 call is made our dedicated controller decides if we are required. Weather hazards play an enormous part in this, because of the mountainous terrain we operate in.

This week was very demanding. One day I went to eight tasks – a combination of road traffic accidents, medical cases and collapses. Unfortunately there was one fatality. Two motorcyclists collided. The one with chest injuries survived. One was a casualty we could do nothing for – poor soul; but experience kicks in and you have to just deal with it, get on and continue learning.

I've been a paramedic for 20 years now. High points are when a patient recovers well: they're sitting up in bed and think the world of you for helping them. Some patients come back to the airbase to personally thank us and that is very touching. The low point is when you have to deal with very poorly children. You have a parent clutching your hand, and you know it's going to be bad. I have two daughters myself, and can imagine what it must be like.

I fell into this career by accident. I left school and got my City & Guilds in Mechanical Engineering. After doing a St John First Aid course I became friendly with the nurse, who motivated me to join the medical world. It's been a fantastic career. You get into work and you don't know where you're going, who you're going to see and what you're going to do. Every day is exciting, that's the beauty of this job.

As told to Anita Sethi