Good work rewarded

From the archive, first published Thursday 26th Apr 2007.

HARD-WORKING volunteers have been rewarded for giving up their spare time to help Southend Hospital patients.

Hospital honours have been awarded to six dedicated volunteers and two groups - the Southend Blind Welfare Organisation and transport body, Carecars.

The awards scheme was set up in 1997 to reward fundraisers, volunteers, and other who make exceptional contributions to the hospital over a period of at least ten years.

Winners for 2007 were:

* Muriel Ardley - a volunteer on Estuary Ward

* Norman Brownlee - a general porter who has worked at Rochford and Southend hospitals since June 1995

* Penny Camish - an information desk volunteer since 1994

* Leo Mellish - a volunteer for the medical equipment service for more than ten years

* Moira Myers - a volunteer in the orthodontic and pharmacy departments before joining the team of outpatient volunteers in 1996 as a hostess.

* Graham Sargent - a

volunteer at the heart and chest clinic since June 1997.

* Carecars - a body which provides door-to-door transport for patients who find it hard to use public transport

* Southend Blind Welfare Association - runs an information desk in the hospital's eye clinic.

Helping patients cope with sight loss

Dot Bambury, 75, helped to set up an information desk in the hospital's eye clinic with friend Betty Mayhew.

The women decided to do it because they felt Mrs Mayhew had not had enough information or support after losing her sight.

"She was told to go home and get on with it and I thought that wasn't good enough," said Mrs Bambury.

The desk started in 1996, opening once a month to running three times a week with a team of trained volunteers.

Mrs Bambury enjoys volunteering because she has the time to sit with patients and talk to them.

"One of the clients wrote in and said we had helped him come to terms with his sight loss and changed his life," she said.

"Now he goes on holidays and does other things. He realised there's life after blindness.

"He thought when he started to lose his sight he wouldn't be able to do anything, then he realised he could."

Mrs Bambury accepted the award on behalf of Southend Blind , whose volunteers man the desk.

Dedicated drivers

Peter Walker, 80, became a volunteer for the Carecars service after reading an ad in the Echo.

He had retired as a financial controller and decided to volunteer as a driver.

"Carecars helps outpatients get to the hospital," he explained. "We pick up people from home and take them in and then wait until they are finished. It's a

door-to-door service."

Mr Walker, of Helena Close, Hawkwell, spends two to three days a week shuttling patients back and forth.

"It keeps me out of trouble," he laughed. "It gets me out of the house - and these ladies are usually widows and like company.

"They've probably had a very quiet weekend when we pick them up on a Monday and having somebody like us to chat to helps put them at ease. It's a fraught business going to hospital."

Mr Walker and fellow driver Joe Denton received the award on behalf of Carecars.

86 and still going strong

Muriel Ardley, 86, started helping out on Estuary ward after her husband, Fred, died.

"He had kidney failure and was in the renal unit on dialysis," she said. "After he died, I wanted to help the nurses, because they were so good to me."

Mrs Ardley began to work on the ward in March 1994 and is now an invaluable member of the team.

"I take prescriptions to the pharmacy, x-rays to the x-ray department, medical notes upstairs to the office and I do the photocopying," she explained.

Mrs Ardley, of Springwater Road, Eastwood, brightens the place by arranging patients' flowers and enjoys taking the teas round, and chatting to them.

"The nurses have such a lot to do," she added. "They haven't got as much time to sit and chat as me."

Pacemaker patrol

Graham Sargent, 72, volunteers at the heart and chest clinic, where he helps patients with pacemakers. The retired police sergeant, of Gainsborough Drive, Westcliff, explains what he loves about voluntering: "Just being able to help the staff in their tasks, meeting people, seeing the difference in people's faces when they have pacemakers fitted, things like that."

Mr Sargent books appointments for pacemaker patients and issues them with the documentation they need to travel, so doctors elsewhere know how to treat them.

"I love it here," he says. "There's a wonderful crowd. We all get on extremely well."