North Carolina Paramedic Loses Fight to Cancer

Tammy Wilson, a Guilford County paramedic who devoted her life to saving lives, lost hers Thursday after a long battle with cancer.

Wilson, the subject of a News-Record story on Jan. 12, left a technician's job after 11 years at Moses Cone Hospital and joined the Guilford County Emergency Services in 1999. She became a favorite among the EMS staff for her medical skills and for comforting ways in dealing with the hurt and sick and their families.

"She was always taking the opportunity to talk with families, to calm and comfort them and to tell them what to expect at the hospital," Reid McCormick, an EMS supervisor, said in the story.

"For some, EMS is a life, not a career, and she was one of them," said retired EMS director Charles Porter in the story.

She was diagnosed in 2004 with cancer that doctors believe began in her cervix, but had spread through her body . She continued to work for a while but finally had to give up answering calls.

She was 40 and leaves a husband, Greensboro firefighter Keith Wilson, and daughter, Megan, 13, and son, Collin, 4.

The family will receive friends today from 6 to 8 p.m. at George's Funeral Home . The funeral will be Sunday at the First Baptist Church of Whitsett, with burial in Alamance Memorial Park.

She will be buried in her EMS uniform and an EMS ambulance will serve as the hearse.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081 or jschlosser @news-record.com

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.