Editorial: Lift St John funds so we all benefit

It's 27 years since I personally needed the services of St John, and amazingly I can remember it as clear as day.
Playing fullback for Havelock North at Farndon Park ... a long and high-clearing kick coming out of the blue sky ... forty-five metres out, have I got time for a dropped goal? ... "boom" went the boot against leather in the winter air, "thwack" went the ball into a chasing Clive player, and then a wicked, high bounce ... the "Nepia" move back and in to gain height, and then "smack", the collision of two heads ... on all fours, warm blood dripping on the ground ... on my feet, nose smashed sideways, St John ambulance officer checking my eyes telling me I was done, and me telling him I was not with an expletive or two thrown in ... a team-mate arrives and confirms the diagnosis with "you're off, your eyes are spinning" ... then a patch-up job on the sideline and off to hospital for stitching.
A good deed by St John, but in their world nothing to write home about.
Not like the work of local David Russell in the Christchurch earthquake, outlined in yesterday's Hawke's Bay Today. Harrowing circumstances, not for the fainthearted.
Not like the times they fly along our roads towards terrible car crashes, farm accidents, any mishap or tragedy (including the Napier Siege) making sure that the "golden hour" can sometimes be just that for our citizens.
They know their stuff. They know when people are critical, when they're just a little bashed around, when there's nothing much to worry about. The battered and the broken, and the dead, are their business. They deal regularly with views many of us never wish to see.
I have taken for granted the transfer of a newly-born daughter struggling to breathe from the North Shore across the Harbour Bridge to Greenlane, a four-year-old daughter with a burst appendix from Napier Health Centre to Hawke's Bay Hospital.
But I have never forgotten my last game for Havelock North and that St John ambulance officer who copped my concussed rave. How could I? I have a different-shaped nose and a nice zip scar to remind me that I have always wanted to apologise to that man. And I will take this chance to do it, by asking, in these cash-strapped times, for a coin or two to head the way of the Flash A Light annual appeal, which runs until next Sunday, in support of St John, a magnificent charity.
Thank you, Zambuck for recognising what turned out to be a heavy concussion ... and sorry for swearing. Luckily Owen Hutchinson wasn't refereeing.
Donations can be made online at www.flashalight.org.nz, by calling 0800 ST JOHN (0800785 646), at any ASB branch and at St John offices in Napier and Hastings.