He recently clocked up 40 years with the Ambulance Service of NSW and is showing no sign of slowing down.

A motorcycle accident as a nearly 17-year-old became a turning point for Phil.

“I only got into it because I had an accident myself,” he said.

“I was unconscious after the motorcycle accident.”

Phil had broken his ankle and cracked his pelvis.

“When I did my recuperation I had a bill to pay. So I would go into the ambulance station at Cootamundra and pay them $5 a fortnight out of my social security,” he said.

Phil got to know (the staff there) and over a period of 12 months, and they asked Phil to join them.

“Nah, I’m too dumb,” was Phil’s reply.

But the Superintendent convinced Phil and he hasn’t looked back since.

“When I’d come to the realisation of what happened (with the accident), I thought, well I have a second chance here, maybe I’ll have a crack at this paramedic thing,” he said. “I still love it with a passion.”

As a result, Phil started at Cootamundra ambulance station in 1975 as an honorary officer at 19 – and did unpaid work for two years while working on the railway.

After two years, he joined up as a paramedic full-time as an officer in Wagga, but travelled around the region as a relief work for two years.

Phil returned to Wagga in 1979 until 1989, where he worked through the ranks until he took a station officer role at Singleton in 1990.

He was the first person at the Singleton station to be trained in advanced life support.

He stayed at Singleton for 18 months, then moved to Cowra as a station officer from 1991-1995.

Phil returned  to Wagga again in 1995 as grade two station officer at the operations centre until it closed in 2001.

“In 2001 I was back on road full-time as a rescue paramedic until 2011,” he said.

“I let the young blokes do that now.”

He is now the only advanced life support paramedic in Wagga.

Phil said life as a paramedic can be difficult.

Phil has been married to Kim for 15 years and they have two children – Eleanor, 12, and Katherine, 9.

“The ambulance service can be pretty tough on families. It takes a special person to understand and put up with what we do,” he said.

“There’s no warning that we’re not going to be home on time.

“But it’s the most rewarding thing you can ever get into.

“You’ve got to develop some coping mechanisms for the things you see and the things you do.”

Phil believes his accident helped him cope with being a paramedic because he’d been the person being treated.

“My biggest escape is to put the headphones on, jump on the lawn mower and I’m in a different world,” he said.

“It gives you time to think about other things.

“I’m really lucky. I don’t suffer nightmares from the job.”

But this is only a small part of what defines Phil Hoey.

Phil volunteered his time teaching first aid with the Red Cross for about 10 years.

“Right through my whole career – since 1979 – I’ve been teaching first aid,” he said

He continues to teach with numerous training groups.

“I thought if I can save someone’s life, why should I keep this a secret?”

Phil worked for 10 years with Asthma Foundation of NSW as a speaker talking about asthma management, as well as working at the Australian Heart Foundation “four or five years”.

He also runs his own lawn mowing business, drives a school bus and is a Justice of the Peace.

He has been a Lions group member for more than 10 years, is a member of the Wagga Veteran Vintage Car club, and was in the model engineers club at the Botanic Gardens for 10 years. 

The only reason he gave the model engineer gig up was because he didn’t have enough time.

“I’m a driven person. I have fingers in a lot of pies,” he said. 

“I like to be on the go. I’m not someone that can sit down and do nothing. My motivation isn’t money. I’ve just got this inner sense.”

But his biggest passion was volunteering for Kidney Health Australia.

Phil has volunteered for 21 years with the charity group.

“As a paramedic I could see people on dialysis and thought maybe I can get in and make a little bit of a difference,” he said.

His first Kidney Kar Rally was in 1994.

Phil took a 21-year-old renal failure patient with him. His main goal was to take care of him. 

“He had the time of his life,” he said.

“When I got back I thought ‘this is too good to dump’.”

From 1997 Phil became a volunteer paramedic for the Kidney Kar Rally.

Now he sets up his Nissan Patrol up as an ambulance while being an official on  the rally.

Phil’s lawn mowing business started 35 years ago “as a bit of a hobby”.

“Over the past five years, I’ve donated more than $100,000 to Kidney Health Australia just from the lawn mowing,” he said. Phil has also raised another $40,000 for the organisation through raffles.

Another volunteer role Phil had was with the National Stroke Foundation.

“I did the stroke program two or three years ago,” he said.

“I did a lecture one week, and the next week I get a call out and it’s one of the blokes from the talk – he recognised the symptoms of stroke in his wife.

“Within 15 minutes she’s at the hospital and treated.

“That’s the stuff that makes it rewarding.”

Phil said it was getting more difficult to find people to do volunteer work.

“All they think is how much money are they going to get out of this,” he said.

“What they don’t realise is you get a lot more out of it than what you think.”

Phil said the role as a paramedic has changed over the years.

“The biggest thing that has changed over the years is that we now debrief after the job,” he said.

“Years ago I remember being told if you can’t handle the job, then get out.”

“Certainly, things are changing, with drugs especially, and with assaults on paramedics and the attitude towards paramedics.

“It’s a far more dangerous environment than what it was when I first started.

“There’s far less respect now than what there used to be, sadly.

“But we’re in a lucky position, as paramedics, to do a little bit of good for people.

“We see people at their worst.

“The impact you can have can be astronomical.”