The alarm sounded. "Boreham Airbase….yes….yes….yes….will attend." Pilot, engineer and paramedic scrambled, helicopter boarded, whirred into action, and for someone, somewhere in the County, rescue and a lifesaving journey in the Essex Air Ambulance.
    "Good time at school?" I asked Lee Gillam.
    "What! Father was a roving manager for British Road Services and my education was at thirteen different schools around the Country; at one, I was only there for an hour! But, being a new arrival, so many times, and usually being greeted by the school bully, taught me how to speak with different people at different levels. Through having to appreciate these differences helped me to begin to understand people; how they think, and how they feel."
    "So, it was out to work soonest?
    "Yes. I left school at fourteen and became a barber’s boy, qualifying in ladies and gents hairdressing. When out in the community I saw people with my haircuts and I began to understand and identify my work as being something outside and part of something wider. I suppose that our work must be a part of Nature itself, which is the be all and end all – life is an interaction with Nature and part of it; God and Nature are together."
    "Was this something reinforced in the Ambulance Service?"
    "Yes indeed; Gods work and Nature are together. Attending my first fatality taught me that life could be taken away: you can’t control Nature. I don’t live for the day – I live for the moment. Yes, I do plan ahead but I know that I may not get there. Plans? I didn’t plan to have to authorise switching off our infant daughter’s life support system."
    "Did you plan to become a mason?"
    "No I didn’t. It had been mentioned a couple of times but I didn’t run with it. My impression was that masons looked after their own, that is, fellow masons and family and that seemed like something worth doing. But then a time came when I wanted to know more and Masonry seemed like a way forward. When I joined I found that it was very different to what I thought it would be…"(we picked ourselves off the floor and eventually stopped laughing) "…I found that it was about being encouraged to be responsible as an individual; yet not in isolation, but in interaction with other people. It is something that is safe for the family, bringing together family, work and life itself."
    "So, how did you get to where you are today?"
    "Things started to really happen in the nineteen eighties. There was the loss of our daughter, industrial unrest in the Ambulance Service that enabled me to take a step into leadership, moving into supervision then management and then being initiated into Hassenbrooke Lodge, No. 7423, Orsett, Essex. I was asked to head up the Specialist Services Division and then we obtained the helicopter."
    "The idea of an air ambulance was conceived, nurtured and delivered by ambulance staff, as volunteers and in their own time. They had the vision and knew that the speed of an air ambulance could save lives. Just yesterday a little boy came to see us. Two months ago he sustained very serious head injuries in a road accident. He was airlifted, we thought that he was lost; but, thanks to the speed of rescue and arrival at the Accident and Emergency unit, he was saved. It really was good to see him."
    "There was no State funding for an air ambulance and thus it was at the good people of Essex that the Ambulance Service volunteers shook their buckets. It costs £70,000 per month to provide the service; that is the helicopter itself, the pilots and engineers. The Essex Ambulance Service pays for the paramedics. The cost works out at £1 per head per annum for each working person in Essex – a very fair premium for more than a thousand call-outs each year. Half of these are to road traffic accidents, then to riding and other off-track rural pursuits, then heart attack and stroke victims. We all should be so grateful to that army of volunteers who are day by day, out there in the community, fund-raising for the Essex Air Ambulance. Freemasonry has been very, very supportive."
    "Would you recommend Freemasonry?"
    "Indeed, I have had the thrill of proposing three into the Craft. Its for anyone who has a zest for life, works hard, supports their family, wants to help those in need, wants to achieve greater levels of responsibility and fulfilment and wants to leave a legacy in this world. I do not withhold the fact that I am a Mason. I support the drive for openness and want more of it; we must seek to achieve public and institutional acceptability by people knowing about the good we are doing."
    "Are there any changes that you would like to see?"
    "Yes, I would like it to be possible for our families to be more involved. Masonry can take up a lot of time, time that perhaps is time that should be spent with them. In order to attract younger people, with real family, career and financial commitments, perhaps we should let them join and relax, not pressurise them into learning ritual and going through in the quickest possible time. Just to enjoy being in Masonry and do the learning in a flexible way that doesn’t add to the demands of the early adult years. Other than that, its great, as it is; for busy people living life to the fullest; the ceremonies, festive board and friendship charges us up and keeps us going."
    The alarm sounded again;….yes….. yes ….yes….will attend. Before it had time to return, Bro.Lee Gillam had sent the Essex Air Ambulance on its way, on another life-saving mission.