Sometimes it feels like not an hour goes past without a helicopter whizzing over the top of my flat. This whooshing air makes the glass in our old window panes rattle loudly; sometimes even the door frame wobbles, splutters and chokes. It can be so violent that we aren't even able to hear the television blaring right in front of us. I respond to this intrusion with a short groan followed by an instinctive smile, because I know what these helicopters are up to.

Our flat is only a few hundred metres away from three major Melbourne hospitals, including a children's hospital. These rattle-inducing helicopters carry injured and sick people desperately in need of treatment hundreds of kilometres through the air, but it just so happens that this path is directly over the roof of my building. I smile because I know that in exchange for my three seconds of slight inconvenience, a person who needs assistance gets it, perhaps in time to save their lives. My window rattles, but they might have the opportunity to share more dinners, holidays and football matches with the the people they care about. I smile because hard-working paramedics, nurses and doctors put their minds and bodies into helping sick people, and I know that one day it just might be me in the helicopter. However inconvenient the rattling and buzzing might be, I'm grateful for these little reminders of some really important things.