WHILE most of us are watching TV and playing party games on Christmas Day, spare a thought for Jemma Kirby – she’ll be settling down for the night in an aircraft hangar with a helicopter for company.

Jemma is scheduled to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day as a paramedic with the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

And while it may be the most wonderful time of the year, emergencies don’t stop just because Santa’s on his sleigh.

As one of the region’s best-loved charities, GNAAS operates 365 days a year, and Jemma is part of a Christmas team that includes a pilot, two doctors working half shifts each, and another paramedic.

With Jemma living on Tyneside with her husband, Oliver, and their rescue dog, Bruce, home is too far away to drive in an emergency. That means she’s the only member of the team who has to sleep on-site at the charity’s headquarters near Eaglescliffe.

Bed will be a bunk behind a security fence in the helicopter’s hangar where there’s no television. The evenings will, therefore, be spent with a book, and using her phone to send festive greetings to her family, including her mum and dad in her native Australia.

“Of course, I’d love to be spending the festive period with my family but it’s just part of a job I love,” says Jemma.

She grew up in Hobart, Tasmania, and has a vivid childhood memory of her sister, Kate, having to be winched off Mount Amos by an air ambulance after she tripped and sprained her ankle.

Jemma started her medical career as a nurse before training as a paramedic. She moved to London in search of a new challenge six years ago, then came to the North-East in 2018 when Oliver started studying in Newcastle to be a doctor.

She initially worked as a clinician for the North East Ambulance Service before progressing to a specialist emergency care role. Part of her training was with the GNAAS, and she jumped at the opportunity to join the charity when a vacancy arose.

As the only female paramedic on the North East critical care team, Jemma has attended numerous major incidents over the past six months. So far, she’s had to be accompanied by another paramedic but she’s just completed her training so she can respond to incidents with just a doctor.

“I’m proud to be part of such a dedicated and highly-skilled team that’s saving lives round the clock,” she says. “It’s a job where you’re challenged with every patient you see – and I suppose it also helps that I love flying!”

Her Christmas shifts are from 8am to 8pm but fellow paramedic Jake Gunn – a self-confessed “Christmas nut” – has decorated the operations room and has promised to make a Christmas roast with all the trimmings.

“It’s definitely going to be the strangest Christmas I’ve ever spent but we’ll make the best of it and be ready for whatever might happen,” adds Jemma.