His passion and dedication to the organisation has resulted in him being one of two people selected to represent New Zealand at the Red Cross Global Youth Conference in Solferino, Italy, next month.
He and a Wellington woman will join about 600 people, from 150 countries, in a humanitarian village set up on the battleground where the Red Cross was founded in 1859.
"It will be fantastic. It's a great opportunity to network," he said.
One week will be spent participating in workshops about disaster, health, capacity building, and principles and values, as well as hearing about how other countries target young people through their organisations.
The group will take part in the Fiaccolata memorial walk, a torch-lit procession taking the same path as nurses who took injured soldiers from the battlefield of Solferino to the first medical outpost in Castiglione.
Mr Turner's time in Italy will end in Geneva after a three-day trip to the Red Cross headquarters.
An experienced tramper, his interest in the Red Cross was sparked when he saw a search and rescue team training.
He was just 16 at the time, and was told he was too young to join.
The next year, he returned and they let him join the team on the condition he did not drive the vehicles.
He has served as treasurer for two years and worked on the youth committee.
He juggled part-time work and study with his Red Cross work, which involved many weekends away for training.
He took children for programmes in bushcraft and civil defence and enjoyed watching them develop.
Getting young people involved in the organisation would increase resilience in the community, he said.
Diverse activities and the chance to "meet people from all walks of life" maintained his interest.
To top it off, he was even a trainee paramedic with St John and was studying towards a graduate diploma in emergency management from Massey University to add to his bio-medical science degree with honours in vaccine research from the University of Otago.
In the future, he would like to work in a diplomatic role.
"It's something to build up to and an area of great interest."
Next week, the Otago Red Cross branch will be celebrating the organisation's 150th anniversary by running a week-long exhibition in the Dunedin Community Gallery.
