Overcoming tragedy to realise a lifelong dream

First published on University of the Sunshine Coast

By Alicia Gutierrez Brown

For Hayley, becoming a paramedic is a dream that materialised in high school, and never left. Originally from New Zealand, Hayley moved to Australia while in school, so as a non-Australian citizen, university felt out of reach.

“I would have had to pay the fees up front, which I couldn’t afford,” she says.

Still, she decided to test the waters with a first aid course at the Caloundra Ambulance Station, learning skills that have ended up saving two lives so far, including her three-day-old son. Her kids came along early – a surprise she says, but a “lovely surprise” – so she spent the next few years raising her children while working as a pharmacy dispensary technician.

Always seeking roles where she could help people, by 2016, Hayley decided it was the right time for her to go to university. Her son was almost eight years old, her daughter 12, a little more independent, and Hayley felt it was finally her season to pursue that high school dream.

So, she completed a Tertiary Preparation Pathway (TPP) program at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), and was accepted to start her bachelor’s degree the following year.

Then, on Boxing Day that year, her kids travelled to Vanuatu with their dad for a family vacation. The same night, he had an asthma attack in front of them and passed away.

“We had separated five years previously, but we co-parented well, sharing care of the kids 50/50,” Hayley explains.

"When he died, it was obviously very traumatic for them… that put my uni journey on hold for a while because the kids needed a lot of extra support through that extremely difficult time.”

Hayley suddenly found herself the sole parent and caregiver for her children, an “isolating and scary feeling.”

“I kept thinking that if something goes wrong, there's no backup for me… I was it,” she says.

Only 18 months later, Hayley’s daughter tragically lost her best friend to murder.

“This set the wheels back that little bit further, with the trauma involved, as she needed lots of mental health support,” Hayley recalls.

“That was a really challenging period, it was basically day by day at that point... I look back now, and I don't even know how we survived, but I feel really proud of the fact that all three of us got through it and came out the other side.”

Time went on, and alongside raising her children solo, Hayley continued working in various health related roles, including managing an online pet pharmacy and working as a business manager at the Buderim Private Emergency Department.

Then, last year, the dream came back more insistent than ever.

“I was working in a job that was not for me… I thought, ‘I can't keep doing this, it’s killing my soul.’”

That night, Hayley jumped on the UniSC website and saw that, incredibly, applications to the Bachelor of Paramedicine program closed the very next day. Without hesitation, she applied.

“Around 10 days later I got the application to say I'd been accepted into paramedicine,” she says.

“I remember I screamed out loud, and the girl across the desk from me at work said, ‘That is the best reaction I've ever seen in my life.’ I was ecstatic... I could not believe it; I was finally realising a lifelong dream.”

“It still makes me emotional to think about... I was finally getting to do something I'd wanted to do for over 20 years; I was 42 and it was something I'd wanted to do since before I was 18.”

After taking the plunge, Hayley was on “cloud nine,” wanting to tell everybody she possibly could about this chance she’d finally been given. She approached her boss to see if she could adjust her workload but was told that wasn’t an option.

“Without thinking I said, ‘Okay, well, I quit.’

"I had no job to go to... I didn't know how I was going to make it work, only that I would make it work – even if I had to stack shelves or get a cleaning job, I was not going to miss this opportunity, not after waiting so long.”

She quit her job, and the following week started uni full time. The week after that, she started a new job as a disability support worker.

“Within three weeks, my life had taken a complete 180 degree turn,” Hayley laughs.

“I'd gone from having a company car and a six-figure salary to being a full time student on very minimum wage… that white-knuckle ride thinking, ‘I have to make this work.’

“Learning to juggle everything with uni commitments, entering as a mature aged student and not knowing one other person in the course… it was quite daunting.”

Now halfway through the degree, Hayley knows she can do it.

“I've gained the most supportive group of friends, and yes, there's been times where I've had tears and frustration and feelings of ‘I can't do this,’ but the support of my group, my lecturers and my tutors have been amazing.

"I've sought help wherever I can get it, because this is something I want to do well at, not just to pass."

Hayley is also an executive member of the Buderim Local Ambulance Committee (LAC), which, along with many other LACs, enjoys a unique partnership with the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) as advocates and volunteers. She recently taught a full day CPR awareness class to more than 150 Year 5 students, a skill she's passionate about teaching as she's had to perform life saving CPR twice now.

"In 2004, I performed CPR on my son who was only three days old, and then in 2013 on my best friend’s 17-year-old daughter who had a sudden cardiac arrest. Both these experiences were terrifying, but I sprang into action, and did what had to be done until the paramedics got there… it cemented that this is what I want to do for a job."

Having now exceeded the halfway point of her studies, Hayley says while it's been tough with “the course content very heavy,” she loves it, nonetheless.

“You're never going to regret something you gave a shot at, but if you don't, you'll never know,” she says.

“And if it's not for you, you can always leave. But if you're brave enough to give it a go, it could completely change your life.”