Today was the London Marathon, and I helped out as a first-aider. I'm a member of the student division of the St John Ambulance, and with some friends was stationed at the twenty-three mile post. There wasn't much happening in the morning, and I even managed to miss Paula Radcliffe zoom past. As the fun runners came through things got interesting though. After a herd of rhinos went past we treated a man who had collapsed. He was seriously dehydrated and his pulse rate was scarily high. A cold sweat came over me, and I started to become cold and clammy, with a feeling of tightness around my chest. Fortunately, there were a number of doctors on board, and the man was said to be doing well as he was ferried to hospital in an ambulance. Seriously though, I have to get over the clinical-grade anxiety I feel whenever I'm asked to use any of the medical skills I've spent four years learning.
Other than that, the marathon was quite quiet in terms of incidents. I just had to dole out the vaseline and give lots of people leg massages. Not very nice, but at least I felt like I was of some use!
Gotta focus on driving now though - it's my practical test tomorrow!
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