King’s Birthday Honours for one of St John WA’s finest

St John WA is proud to share the news that former Clinical Support Paramedic Shane Toovey has been awarded an Ambulance Service Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours for 2025.

Shane first joined St John WA as an on-road Ambulance Officer in 2010.

He steadily climbed his way through the ranks, being promoted to Paramedic in 2012 where he served in the metro area.

In 2018 he took on a regional Community Paramedic role serving the Meekatharra and surround community until 2020.

Shane’s recognised exceptional clinical skills and leadership ability saw him rise to the level of Area Manager and in 2021 Clinical Support Manager.

Shane has had extensive experience with extremely confronting scenes, including responding on his own to high trauma cases where the stress of inability to transport the patient increased the cognitive burden as well as cases of being called to respond to a colleague and good friend.

Despite these continued traumas, Shane maintained a supportive and mentoring attitude to those he worked with and continued to dedicate himself to the development of his peers and juniors to maintain the highest standards of care to all the people of Perth.

Shane’s role as a Clinical Support Paramedic allowed him to develop policies and procedures for his fellow colleagues and pass his knowledge and expertise on to the next generation of paramedics.

Notably, Shane attended to fallen service member Tinesh Tamilkodi and in the high-profile case of Lynn Cannon, he made the decision to enter the scene knowing the grave risk he faced in an attempt to save her life.

He was with Ms Cannon when she took her last breath in December 2022, and has been praised by her family, as well as the Deputy State Coroner who said during the inquest – “I have no doubt every single person in this case is in awe of you.”

St John WA Group CEO Kevin Brown said he was delighted Shane had been recognised.

“The dedication Shane displayed in his time at St John is testament to our values,” he said.

“He is absolutely a most worthy recipient of the honour.”

The Australian Honours and Awards system recognises the outstanding service and contributions of Australians.

While typically they haven’t sought thanks or recognition, they deserve both.