On the job hero

Mark “Marko” Cunningham, 39, moved to Thailand 10 years ago to teach English, soon after beginning work as a volunteer paramedic. Cunningham tells CNN’s Julie Clothier about his role as a “body snatcher”. “I first started volunteering with the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, at first donating food and clothing to poor villages and disaster victims. The foundation is one of several private groups that help Bangkok’s rudimentary ambulance services by either ferrying injured people to hospital or taking the dead for autopsy. We’re called the ‘body snatchers’ by locals. After a year or so I began working in the rescue vehicles collecting the dead from all over Bangkok and Thailand. I’ve being doing it ever since. I want to start the Bangkok Free Ambulance like we have back in New Zealand, by the end of the year. I continually study and update my knowledge. Working as a medic is not a job but a way of life.”