Today, St. John Ambulance Malaysia Keat Hwa Secondary School Division has reached its 37th year anniversary. In October 1960, it was established successfully and named First Aid Team. At the beginning of its establishment, the team was led by Mr Khoo Kok Hong and there were only about 50 members joining it. Well, it faced many problems such as insufficient site for meeting usage. Due to this, the time of meeting was temporarily fixed to be from 8 to 9p.m. in every Thursday and was located in the science lab. Mr Khoo Kok Hong and Dr. Lim Joo Hai gave lectures voluntarily whereas Mr Khoo himself was in charge in the practical section.

Our First Aid Team began to join Malaysian St. John Ambulance Society in 1963. Starting from that moment, it has been called St.. John Ambulance Malaysia Team. The team members were divided into two major groups. Each team comprised six groups and led by a leader. At that time, there were two types of practice provided, one was first aid knowledge and the other was first aid technique. Lectures as well as notes were given by Dr. Lim to all members and the syllabus was based on the book ‘First Aid’ written by Mr R. Krishnan, former Corps Superintendent of Northern Kedah Area. Practical training was guided by Mr Lew Yong Foa.

At the same year, Mr Yeoh Poh Huan was appointed to be the teacher advisor of St John Ambulance Malaysia, Keat Hwa Secondary School Division, replacing Mr. Khoo Kok Hong. After this, several changes were made. There were 33 members taking part in a test prepared by authority concerned at 10 April 1963. Apart from that, every member was made compulsory to start on their duties in the St John room during recess.

A few years later, our St John team showed good prestige because of the guidance from Mr. Yeoh( the teacher advisor), Mr. Chong Ah Hoe, Mr. Bon Lua and Mr. Tham Kam Choy from General Hospital. Due to the factor above, our team had sent a Cadet team to participate in the North Kedah First Aid Competition in 1975. What can be proud of was, the team became the champion! This meaningful event then enhanced the high spirits among our members and became an incentive for members to put much more efforts in it. In 1976, our division sent the first Ambulance team to participate in another competition and it ended up with pride as both the Ambulance team and Cadet team won the champion!! As a result, both teams entered the final level of the competition( represented Kedah). All these achievements were lasting for a few years continuously.

At late 1970s, the activities of our division were varied. For instance, camping was initially held in 1977 and it is still an important activity until today. Since 1978, several trips have been made to enable all the members to visit some places of interest. Besides that, Intersquad Competition and Farewell Ceremony were also regarded as compulsory events of a year. The aim of doing this was to achieve our objectives such as to improve knowledge among members.

In 1981, the members of our division were grouped into recruit, Cadet Nursing, Cadet Ambulance, Adult Nursing and Adult Ambulance. Weekly meeting was held every Saturday, 8.30 to 11.00a.m. While meeting, members were given useful lectures about first aid, marching training, stretcher drill training or home nursing training. At that time, there were approximately 150 members and this figure rose till 342 members in 5 years time.

In 1980s, our division developed distinctively when being led by Mr. Wong Ah See. Since 1988, it was under the lead of Mr. Lee Siak Chai. Because of Mr. Lee’s wise thought and leadership, our division became highly respected in community. Our financial and administration system were changed and rearranged systematically.

Not only achieving good results in national level, our division also broke the record and participated in the international level. It consisted of Cadet Ambulance team, Cadet Nursing team, Adult Ambulance team and Adult Nursing team. The competition was held in Singapore. Cadet Nursing team won the first place after all and Kedah Contingent obtained NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP award that year. The same thing happened in 1993 and it was really cheerful.

The time of meeting had been lengthen until 12.30p.m. In 1993, it was then fixed to hold from 9a.m. until 12.30p.m. after considering some problems occurred. New Year Gathering and Telematch were added to our annual routine to vary the activities.

As our division continues obtaining aids from school authority, communities, members and other authorities concerned, it is still slowly progressing until a higher level which can admittedly proud of.