What is St John Ambulance?

St John Ambulance is the largest first aid organisation in the UK, and probably the world. St John Ambulance has a rich history, and has always been leading the way in first aid (in fact we invented the term “first aid”!).

Today, St John Ambulance is a major voluntary organisation, with over 44,000 volunteers in England alone. Our volunteers learn first aid, train first aid to others, and provide first aid services at public events - for instance, most football matches, many music concerts, theatrical performances, the London Marathon and many half marathons and many other public events are staffed by our trained personnel. We are also a major youth organisation, with over half of our members aged under 25, including Badgers for children, Cadets for teenagers and LINKS for students at university.

We support our core first aid activities with a number of more advanced emergency medical services and other activities in the community. We have many professional doctors, nurses, paramedics and ambulance technicians volunteer with us in their time off, and in addition we have our own trained ambulance technicians (Emergency Transport Attendants) who crew our fleet of ambulances. In fact, St John Ambulance has the largest fleet of ambulances in England!

St John Ambulance is a charity and is not funded by the government. We rely on money raised by our first aid and health and safety training courses, income from public events, sale of first aid supplies, and donations in order to support our work. Most importantly, we rely on our many volunteers (who receive out-of-pocket expenses but are not paid), and are always looking for people to join. While it won’t make you rich, volunteering with St John Ambulance has many priceless benefits.

To hear about some of the ways being a St John Ambulance member has benefited me,
read about what I do in St John Ambulance, and why.