Your shift is done’
‘Alice showed so much potential. She was bright, fun, enthusiastic’
Dozens of paramedics lined the street as they paid their respects to a ‘beautiful and kind’ recruit who was killed in an ambulance crash just weeks after starting her dream job.
Alice Clark, 21, who had only joined South East Coast Ambulance Service in November last year, died in the accident, on the A21 near Tonbridge on January 5.
Miss Clark, who was based at Paddock Wood, was a front seat passenger and died at the scene. Paramedic Edward Riding, who was driving, was airlifted to hospital with serious multiple injuries. He is now in a stable condition but faces a long recovery. Student paramedic Megan Kuhn, who was in the back, suffered head injuries.
The driver of a cement lorry also involved in the crash suffered minor injuries. The road was closed for several hours while crash investigators carried out investigations.
Miss Clark, from Newington, was a former pupil of Rainham Mark Grammar School.
She left in 2018 and went to the University of Greenwich to study to become a paramedic, graduating in July 2021.
Her funeral service was held at the Garden of England Crematorium,
Sheppey Way, Bobbing, at 10.30am last Thursday. SECAmb staff provided a guard of honour along the drive, while an air ambulance hovered in the skies above, as the hearse approached the chapel. Many staff wore face masks at the request of Miss Clark’s family. Colleagues from across Kent and London stood in silence as the hearse carrying the young ambulance worker drove by. They were joined by a delegation of firefighters, two London Ambulance motorcycles and an ambulance.
As people stood on the drive the heavens opened in a deluge, prompting one colleague to comment: “It’s as if God is crying himself.”
Her heartbroken parents previously paid tribute to her and said she had loved working for the ambulance service. They said: “Alice was so excited to qualify as a paramedic and looked forward to every shift. “She was a beautiful, kind, fun-loving daughter, sister and granddaughter. “She loved to travel. Anyone who met her loved her. She will be missed more than words can say by family and friends.” Giovanni Mazza, her manager at the Paddock Wood Operating Unit where she was based, added: “Although she had only been with us for a short time, Alice was already very much part of our ambulance family and will be remembered as a kind and dedicated paramedic. “She will be deeply and sadly missed by her colleagues. We are sending our love and prayers to her family and friends.”
She added: “Alice had a very positive impact on our service. She showed so much potential. She was bright, fun, enthusiastic.”
Standard bearers from SECAmb, London Ambulance Service and Kent Fire and Rescue Service led the mourners into the chapel
Dr Fionna Moore, SECAmb’s medical director, spoke of Miss Clark’s time at Greenwich University while she taking her degree in paramedic science, her posting to Deptford in London and her days at Paddock Wood when she returned to Kent.
She said: “She was clearly very much loved and respected, a kind and thoughtful clinician, a loyal and treasured friend.” She added: “Farewell Alice from all of us in Green and thank you. Your shift is done – stand down.”