Eighty-four-year-old Don Anderson almost didn't make it to 60.
The former Yalgoo Shire President, cauliflower grower and Meekatharra Hospital board member is now enjoying retirement in Toodyay, but it's been a long road to get here.
Mr Anderson has just finished up 27 years of volunteering for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), inspired by his own dance with death in 1995.
He and his wife Rhonda were living at Burnerbinmah Station in Yalgoo, 500 kilometres north-east of Perth, when Don was bitten on the foot by a king brown snake.
"When I was bitten, I was still covered with the smell of wild goats after bringing them in at night," he said.
"It was still very hot, nearly 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) ... I went into the homestead and laid on the double bed, waiting for a reaction."
"It was excessively painful around the back end of my head; I was lapsing in and out of consciousness and sound and light was disappearing."
Mrs Anderson, a qualified nurse who had until that point been enjoying a bath, quickly got hold of a neighbour and contacted the RFDS.
"I said, 'Where were your boots?' If he'd had his boots on he'd never have got bitten," she said.
They rushed the 60 kilometres to the Golden Grove airstrip, where Mr Anderson was picked up by the RFDS and flown to Perth.
Doctors delivered the anti-venom just after midnight — three hours after he was bitten.
"It was touch and go whether I was even going to make it on the flight to Perth," he said.
From venom to volunteer
Mr Anderson's brush with death inspired him to give back to the organisation that saved his life.
Working at the RFDS Primary Health Clinic at Payne's Find in the Midwest, he transported crews from the airstrip, delivered vaccine doses to remote communities and even worked reception.
Eight years ago, the Andersons moved 450km south to Toodyay.
But that didn't stop him from making the four-hour journey every month to lend a helping hand.
RFDS WA chief executive Judith Barker says volunteers like Mr Anderson keep the organisation alive.
"Don is an absolute gem ... he's a heart and soul of RFDS and we're so proud that he was a part of our organisation," she said.
"It's people like Don volunteering in regional areas — we depend on them."
"We need more Dons in the world because they keep us going."
Mr Anderson still volunteers in patient transfers locally in Toodyay, but has called time on his service to the RFDS.
He encourages anyone who is able to consider volunteering, to help save lives in remote communities.
"The RFDS try to keep as many doctors as they can for their rotations of clinics ... but they have a real battle nowadays," he said.
"The job they do is just incredible. Nothing seems too far away ... you won't know how much it's worth until something happens and you can't get an aircraft."
