Liam Anderson, 22, is a bit like Clark Kent of Superman fame. By day he is a mild mannered government statistical officer; by night (and some weekends) he dons a different uniform and races around in an ambulance, helping to save lives.

Mr. Anderson has been a volunteer with the St. John Ambulance for about five years, and is Quartermaster, in charge of supplies. This month his work with the charity was recognised with a Cablevision Community Service Award.

“A lot of people ask how I could do two different things, be a statistician and a ambulance volunteer” he said, “but I think just one balances out the other.”

The first person that 22-year-old Liam Anderson ever helped as a St. John ambulance volunteer was his own cousin.

“There was a road race in St. George’s,” Mr. Anderson told the Royal Gazette. “It ended up being my cousin who I was treating for slight dehydration. We gave him some water and some rest. He had over-exerted himself and we just needed to get his body to slow down. I was 17, just off my first year of university, where I was studying math and statistics with economics.”

Today, Mr. Anderson is an important member of the St. John ambulance team which is made up of about 50 volunteers. In 2006 he was named volunteer of the year. It was Mr. Anderson’s older brother who first inspired his interest in emergency care.

“My brother was an EMT at King Edward VII Memorial hospital,” Mr. Anderson said. “He did it and I wanted to do it. I had had first aid training for awhile, and I was looking for somewhere that I could use it. A friend of mine who used to do St. John’s introduced me to it and brought me over for my first Monday night and I have been coming ever since.”

Of course, Mr. Anderson readily admitted that the ambulance itself was a big draw for himself and many other volunteers. He is looking forward to getting a licence to drive the ambulance on the road.

“I just love working with the ambulances,” he said. “First you have to be 21 years old. Then you have to get an intermediate truck licence, and then you take the advanced drivers course. I have been looking forward to it ever since I started here.”

Although Mr. Anderson could probably be excused from the Bermuda Regiment because of his St. John work, he has chosen to do his time anyway. Part of this is because he is a recent graduate of the Bermuda Cadet Corps.

“I didn’t have to go up there (to the Bermuda Regiment), but since the Cadet Corps was designed to train future soldiers it was only natural that I progress from the Cadet Corps into the Regiment, he said. “The Bermuda Regiment training camp was actually a lot easier because I had a good base of knowledge from the Cadet Corps. Most of the lessons I took were stuff I already knew. That tended to help me out. A lot of the personalities up there also helped me out.”

However, his time in the Bermuda Regiment does limit the time he can offer to the St. John’s Ambulance.

“In a volunteer capacity I try and come out at least once a month, due to my other time constraints,” he said. “I am here doing quartermaster work for about two or three times a week which involves an hour or two.”

He said his time in the Bermuda Cadet Corps helped to prepare him for the quartermaster role at St. John’s.

“At one point in the Cadet Corps, I was serving as the company quartermaster sergeant for one of our two week camps so I already had experience with managing an inventory system within a quasi military organisation,” he said. “So I already had the skill set that I needed.”

And in his working life, he has been asked to join an office health & safety committee. One of his first suggestions was that his fellow employees update their CPR skills to keep up with recent CPR protocol changes.

“My father always wanted me to be a doctor, but it wasn’t my thing,” said Mr. Anderson. “I preferred the fast paced action of being in the ambulance. Even so, the St. John’s Ambulance is really just a hobby for me.”

Being trained in first-aid brings with it certain responsibilities. For example, Mr. Anderson never travels without at least the basics of first aid.

“There is a personal reason I always carry around at least basic first aid equipment,” he said. “Once, I stopped at a road traffic accident where I wasn’t prepared. All I had on me was a set of gloves. It was the first real major incident I had to deal with. There were plenty of people standing around, but no one was actually trying to render care. I had to stop my car and run over. There were people checking his pulse, but I was the first to make some proactive movement to promote recovery. I wasn’t able to help the person. He had already died. It was one of my former fellow cadets. From there I said I would never be without the minimum which is a set of gloves and a face shield.”

Now he always carries a trauma kit in his car, and a pair of gloves and a mask on his motorcycle.

“Ever since that experience I’ve said I never want to be under-prepared again,” he said. “It does make you a little anxious, but in the end you can never be too prepared.”

Of course, Murphy’s Law being what it is, he has never actually come across any other accidents since carrying the kit around.

“It is actually pretty rare that someone with first aid training will randomly come across an accident scene where there is dire need for them to assist,” he said.

Being in the Bermuda Regiment and the St. John Ambulance may present some conflicts for Mr. Anderson during a state of emergency, because both organisations require him to be present.

“During a state of emergency, it gets kind of tricky,” he said. “If I am here at the St. John Ambulance Brigade, my first responsibility is to ensure we have enough supplies and equipment available to the members so they can properly do their job. I would be one of the first people in to the office. My first job is to ensure that they are properly equipped if they haven’t done so already. After that, it is preparing supplies to go out in mass quantities, should they be needed.”

Mr. Anderson feels that should the now legendary non-Tsunami actually have struck the island in December, Bermuda would have been able to deal with this scale of emergency.

“I think people don’t realise, but the island’s emergency services are well prepared to deal with any emergency,” he said. “In the end we do have limited resources, but when you look at it, essentially, anyone who can is going to come out and try to help. That is all we need. Whenever people feel they can help, just come out and give a hand.”

As a volunteer, Mr. Anderson has a number of goals, for himself and St. John itself.

“There are a couple of projects we are trying to see through,” he said. “One of them is getting a new building. Other than that, I aspire to become a commissioner of the brigade. It depends how long it takes everyone else to get out of the way. (Laughter). Probably within the next ten years I could achieve that goal.”

He said that what he most enjoys about being in the St. John Ambulance is the people he works with.

“We are doing a job, but in the end we are having fun as well,” he said. “The people who are here are good people who are just trying to do something good for the community.”