Bruce: I was in a bike shop in Mayfield when there was a loud noise and the roof fell in.

The street was filled with confused people. I phoned work and was told that there were hundreds of dead.

I worked for 4 hours on Beaumont Street and when it calmed down, I reported to the Workers Club where I worked another 16 hours, even though they tried to send me home.

This photo of Margaret and I was at the first anniversary of the quake. There was no counselling in those days and our debrief was just us sitting around talking about what happened.

The stress came out later and a lot of the guys who worked on the earthquake also faced two bus crashes within weeks.

The Post Traumatic Stress of such major disasters knocked us all around.

Margaret and I met down by the foreshore at an event to reopen the moved Workers Club.

We were an item for five years. We aren’t together anymore but we are still good friends.

I retired a few years ago.

Margaret: The Workers Club was like a family. All the staff and patrons were close.

We only had about ¼ of the people normally in because of the bus strike.

I was selling tickets to the Crowded House concert that night and had just gone into my office.

There was a sound like a train, everything shook and then I don’t remember much. The office on the right with Tony and the safe collapsed through the floor.

My office was on the left. It was dark and sound equipment had fallen across my door trapping me in.

I don’t really remember getting out of the building. I went out onto the median strip and helped with the injured.

I was walking home covered in blood, trying to get to my girls in Cardiff when a friend saw me and gave me a lift.

He freaked out about the blood but I told him it wasn’t mine.

I lost my job, my car and a lot of friends all in one minute. I try not to talk about it. It hurts too much.

I didn’t work for five months and then got a job at Cardiff Workers Club where I was for 14 years.

Bruce Hounslow & Margaret Turnbull

Then 41 year old Paramedic & 39 year old Newcastle Workers Club receptionist, Newcastle