Leanne Tickle would like us all to take one important message away from her career.
Age is just a number.
Queensland Ambulance Service's (QAS) Mackay graduate paramedic and grandmother didn’t embark on chasing her dream career until she was in her late forties, but has absolutely no regrets.
“Oh 100 per cent. I just love it. I just love talking to people and I love helping people,” she said.
Leanne’s inspiration came from reading the memoir of paramedic Paul Featherstone, who became a national hero after saving Stuart Diver after the 1997 Thredbo landslide.
He also attended the Granville rail disaster of 1977.
“I read it many, many years ago," Leanne said.
"His book was very inspiring, and paramedicine is something I've always wanted to do, but given my age at the time, I thought nursing would be more realistic and fill that dream, I guess."
So in 2017, in her late 40s Leanne embarked on a nursing degree while working in administration at Queensland Fire and Rescue.
But two years and several placements into her degree, she realised ward nursing wasn’t going to fulfill that dream.
By 2019 Leanne had moved to the QAS as an executive assistant, and in the same year she made the bold decision to switch her degree to paramedicine.
“My daughter had just commenced her graduate position as a paramedic and she inspired me,” Leanne said.
“I was inspired by what she was doing and being outside and working under pressure and the environment seemed so much more inviting."
When a new Patient Transport Officer (PTO) role opened up, Leanne used it as an opportunity to take another step towards her goal.
“I was working as an Executive Assistant when this PTO position came up which I thought would help my study to be around the scope for the terminology and the skills,” Leanne said.
The Mackay grandmother never saw her age as a barrier.
“It's just a number and I didn't want to die wondering," she said.
Leanne juggled full time work and family commitments - she even applied for and won two scholarships and a bursary along the way - but said her biggest challenge was academic.
Leanne said she'd never studied sciences at school, and she struggled.
But her toughest test of all came when she failed a trauma subject in her final year and she remembered being "heartbroken".
“I failed this 10-minute scenario," she said.
"I had done well all semester, and I couldn't believe this 10-minute scenario would mean I failed a subject.
“I had to wait another 12 months to study it again.
“I guess it didn't hurt, but the fact I couldn't start this career for another year was just so heartbreaking."
Now six months into her graduate program, Leanne doesn’t regret a thing, and her long-awaited career is everything she’d hoped it would be.
“Just the fact you can change someone's thought process or clinical position in a short amount of time you have that with that patient, and you can learn so much from them clinically and just about what they do and how they're feeling."
Leanne hasn’t finished studying just yet either - she’s currently enrolled in a graduate certificate in emergency management.
Another goal is to work more closely with her paramedic daughter Gabrielle Refalo, who is currently on maternity leave.
While the pair have only worked a few shifts together to date, they hope to pair up again in the future.
“She would probably be the hardest taskmaster,” said Leanne of her daughter.
And while Leanne shies away from the notion she’s inspirational, she encourages anyone considering a later-in-life career change to go for it.
“Age is just a number - just have a go and if it’s not for you, you’ll know - and it might lead you down another pathway or direction that you will like.
"Just don’t die wondering,” Leanne said.