Chris Phillips

What happened after you left Bridgnorth Endowed School?

During my time in the sixth form, I developed an interest in emergency care and became a volunteer community first responder whilst finishing my studies. This naturally progressed my career into becoming a student paramedic with West Midlands Ambulance Service, as an employee with training 100% funded.

After then completing the FdSc Paramedic Science course at the University of Worcester, I have been working as a full-time paramedic for West Midlands Ambulance Service, currently at the Donnington Hub.

At age 18, I also started my own company on a self-employed basis, called Heartstart Midlands. This focused on the provision and supply of public access defibrillators and first aid training. The services portfolio and product catalogue quickly grew, where I became the key medical supplier to large organisations such as Lowland Rescue organisations and councils. 

Following a final year’s annual turnover of £125,000, I sold Heartstart Midlands to form part of the SP Services Group, now based in Hortonwood, Telford, which is a successful supplier of emergency and medical equipment worldwide, with a healthy £9,000,000 annual turnover.

What does your current job involve?

My role is focused around delivering urgent and emergency patient care in both time-critical and routine environments, some of which are often highly stressful. As a paramedic, I have had the exciting opportunity to work as a mentor and develop new initiatives such as a £500,000 project to fund a mental health response car for across the Shropshire region, soon to be introduced.

Alongside my work as paramedic, I am fortunate enough to work for SP Services, managing a large territory in the UK to enhance commercial value and opportunities for our clinical portfolio of clients and to innovate new products.

I’m also currently studying an MSc in Emergency Planning, Resilience and Response.

What were the highlights of your time at Bridgnorth Endowed School?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Bridgnorth Endowed School. I joined in 2008 and progressed through my school career, not only learning the academic values required as a student, but how to develop personal attributes and values to support my future careers.

I stayed on to attend the sixth form at Bridgnorth Endowed School, during which time, I worked as a Student PE Teaching Assistant, a role unique to BES, which required me to develop autonomy, leadership and teaching skills.