Tanya Woroniuk, a MGEU Local 78 member and paramedic in West St. Paul, is getting ready to head overseas in early October and serve with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
Woroniuk, 23, volunteered to train as an armoured vehicle driver in Edmonton and took a nine-month leave of absence from the Interlake Regional Health Authority to help Canada's troops overseas.
Now she’s headed to Afghanistan to get behind the wheel of a heavily-armoured Bison ambulance on the hazardous roads near Canada’s main base in Kandahar City.
“There was a sense of adventure, but mostly I wanted to put my five years of paramedic training to good use… I’m excited and scared at the same time, but I really want to go to support my army friends on the ground,” Woroniuk told the Interlake Spectator late last week while spending time with her parents Cherri and Randy Woroniuk in Gimli. Randy, a Resource Officer with the department of Conservation is also a MGEU member in Area 5.
Tanya intends to return to work as a paramedic, both as a forces reservist and by holding a full-time job, when she returns to Manitoba in March.
“I want to advance in the paramedic profession and may take more university,” she said. “My preference is to be out in the field rather than a doctor in a hospital.”
“You really have to admire her [Tanya’s] enthusiasm and her resolve,” says MGEU President Peter Olfert. “To do what she and all of our other troops are doing, takes a lot of courage - not just to go into battle, but to leave friends and family behind for a foreign, hostile environment – it takes a lot of strength. On behalf of the MGEU I’d like to thank Tanya for her role in protecting our way of life and wish her all the best during her tour in Afghanistan.”