CASUALTY CALLED ME TERRORIST B*****D

Pioneer Araf tells of his love for the NHS despite a racist attack in A&E that forced him off work for 2 years

-  VIVIENNE AITKEN

THE first Scots-South Asian paramedic was the subject of such a hideous racist attack by a patient he walked away from the job for two years.

Araf Saddiq, 57, who lives in Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, was born in the UK to Pakistani parents and is extremely proud to be the first person from South Asia, and the first Muslim, to serve with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Over the years he has suffered some racist abuse but joked: "I grew up in Bridgeton so I am pretty tough-skinned.

"There the colour of your skin doesn't matter, it is all about which football team you support."

But in 2010 Araf was so badly attacked by a patient that he took an extended career break to get over the trauma.

He said: "I haven't had many incidents of racism but it has happened. It happens in different ways - people won't look at you or talk to you even if you are the attending clinician, you are asking the questions but they won't look at you. I have been called racist names a number of times.

"But I was assaulted about 11 years ago. I took a person into hospital and attended to him. He didn't say much in the back of the ambulance but once I got him through the doors into the hospital and on a chair he just turned round and called me a 'black, terrorist b*****d'. I started laughing and, before I knew it, he was off his chair in A&E punching and kicking me.