Hotspur Hero - Saul Gaunt

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Our next Hotspur Hero, Saul Gaunt, has remained committed to helping people throughout the pandemic, both in his job as a London Ambulance Service paramedic and by delivering meals to vulnerable people across the capital.

Reflecting on his experiences over the last five months, he told us: “It has been an exhausting time, but I wanted to go out and support as much as I could.”

For Saul, this meant working 60-hour weeks at the height of the pandemic, combining shifts in the Service’s ‘clinical hub’ advising 999 callers, with long days and nights responding to emergencies in his ambulance.

“When we were at the peak, it was so busy that we had to tell some callers they would need to wait longer than usual for an ambulance," he explained. "That was really tough to do, but I was impressed with the public’s reaction. Most seemed to understand the situation we were in.”

London Ambulance Service receives around 5,500 calls on a typical busy day. But on some days during the peak of the virus, more than 11,000 999 calls came in to the control rooms.

Even more challenging for Saul was the painful reality of telling patients’ families that they couldn’t accompany their loved ones to hospital because of COVID-19.

He told us: “I went to one elderly gentleman’s house who wasn’t very well at all, and had to break the news to his family that they weren’t able to come with us and comfort him in the ambulance.”

On top of this, another difficulty for paramedics like Saul was dealing with the sense of fear among some patients that they would be exposed to the virus if admitted to hospital.

He continued: “People did not want to come in the ambulance and some point blank refused - these are people who needed hospital treatment but were so against going. Others didn’t want to take their children in. It was really sad.”

Ambulances aren’t just a part of Saul’s day job - he dedicates his spare time to working for the Ambulance Wish Foundation, a charity which makes wishes come true for end-of-life patients.

Having been unable to fulfil wishes during lockdown, Saul and his team switched their attention to helping vulnerable people across the capital and delivering over 50,000 meals since March.

When asked about the recognition he has received as a key worker, Saul added: “I’m just doing my job and I get on with it. I don’t need to be clapped, but it has been lovely to have the support and it has helped us keep going.

“There are so many key workers who won’t have got the praise that I’ve got and that’s hard, so yes, it’s great, but there are so many people who deserve applause as well.”

Finishing on the subject of football, Saul told us how he 'married into the Club', having come to support Spurs through his wife, Lindsey.

He smiled: “When my wife took me to my first game, I absolutely caught the bug and now I’m watching Spurs every weekend! The family atmosphere is what I enjoy the most - it’s all about bringing people together.”

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