For the love of helping others

IF you or a loved one ever uses a SafetyLink personal alarm in a medical emergency, you have Black Hill’s Pamella Taylor to thank.

The now-life governor of the Queen Elizabeth Centre invented the device in the 1980s, in partnership with QE engineers, to assist older community members in need.

“I’m very proud of SafetyLink because it’s had such far-reaching effects in helping people,” she said.

Mrs Taylor trained as a nurse in the mid-1950s, working in Melbourne, and then the Victorian High Country, where she tended to many skiing injuries.

Settling in Ballarat with late husband Roy in the early-1960s, Mrs Taylor’s first role at the Ballarat Base Hospital was as a midwife in the maternity unit.

She went onto be an evening sister at the QE, before she joined the welfare department, and became a key driver in the health facility’s growth as its community services director for 15 years.

“I’ve enjoyed making life easier for people and educating them in various ways,” she said.

Mrs Taylor has also volunteered at the Gold Museum, with Ballarat Goldfields Probus Club, and the Liberal Party of Australia’s Soldiers Hill branch, and founded the Ballarat branch of Soroptimist International in 1979.

“We’ve worked a lot to further the welfare of women,” she said.

For service to nursing, and to the community, Mrs Taylor is being awarded a general Medal of the Order of Australia this Australia Day.

“I’m humbled,” she said. “I loved my work. I did it for the love.”