Interviewer   

So, my name’s David Wood, I’m interviewing you today. Could I have your name?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

It’s Jan O’Neill.  

  

Interviewer   

 And which Friends group are you associated with?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Barts Guild.  

  

Interviewer   

 And how old are you?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 I’m 72.  

  

Interviewer   

 So, could we start by just you explaining a bit about what first inspired you to get involved in the Friends group?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Well, it’s a bit like an arranged marriage, really. The inspiration and love came later. I was already volunteering at Barts, which I still do in the Macmillan Cancer Information Centre. And the Guild, I think, wanted a volunteer trustee.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 So the volunteer manager asked me if I’d like to do it. And I thought, well, how difficult can that be? Six meetings a year and sign a few cheques? Yes, I can do that. I wasn’t quite prepared for how actively I would be volunteering. And very quickly fell in love with the Guild hopelessly, completely and permanently.  

  

Interviewer   

 And how long ago was that?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 It would be, let’s think probably 11 years.  

  

Interviewer   

 Okay. Had you been sort of a lifelong volunteer in other settings or was this a new thing for you?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Well, no, it was completely new because I had always had very absorbing jobs that were usually irregular hours. So there would have been no opportunity to volunteer.  

  

Interviewer   

 And you say you still volunteer in the hospital for Macmillan as well?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Oh yes.  

  

Interviewer   

 So what’s the Macmillan role?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Well, we have a Cancer Information centre. It’s manned by, two specialists, nurses and volunteers, usually two at a time. So there’s three of us and it’s open to any cancer patient. They come in. Sometimes they just want to chat with somebody that’s not wearing a hospital uniform and talk about what was on Eastenders, and, you know, and eventually they’ll tell you what’s really worrying them. Sometimes they’ll come in very distressed because they’ve had bad news.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 So it’s a cuddle and a cup of tea and take them in the kitchen and let them sit and calm themselves. Sometimes it’s relatives wanting to know the best thing they can do for their family member who is ill and the best bit is when they come in. You can always tell when a patient’s got the all clear, they glow and they come in and say, I’ve got the all clear and we all do a little dance and feel very happy. So it’s, it’s quite varied actually. And I’ve certainly learned a lot about human nature and come to admire, my fellow human beings very much because of the courage I’ve seen. It’s quite extraordinary how valiant cancer patients are.  

  

Interviewer   

 Now, I’m always astounded by the variety of different volunteering opportunities there are in the hospitals. So you’ve described this marvelous, marvelous thing that’s done by volunteers to support people at a very challenging time in their life. But you also explained that the League of Friends was more than you expected it to be perhaps?  

Jan O’Neill   

 Just a bit. Well, I knew that when I signed up that the Friends ran the hospital shop and did a trolley service, as I think most of these Friends do. And I rather thought that was probably it, but I found that the Guild was deeply embedded in Bart’s culture. You know, it was really truly part of the hospital. And when I joined, we were, I think, a year off our centenary year. So there was a lot of planning around that to have this enormous concert and various other events. And I got involved with that and I enjoyed it very much.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 We then tried to replicate a Hogarth fair, which was probably the early thirties with Lady Sainsbury running the grocery store. That sort of thing. It wasn’t quite the Hogarthian ideal. We didn’t have a gin stool sadly, but there you go. It was great fun. We made some money and, you know, we have Christmas fairs, you know, that sort of thing. There are lots of things, but what I do mostly is organise the Guild’s Christmas concert and produce the Guild’s twice yearly magazine. So, which is quite useful. So I’m using skills I had in my working life.  

  

Interviewer   

 Excellent. So your volunteering has very much brought your professional skills into your role?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Oh absolutely. It’s nice to have them used, you know, and you know, mostly people are very helpful. We get a lot of, sometimes solicited, sometimes unsolicited contributions for the magazine. So it’s the agony of sometimes editing without offence, but it’s mostly, they’re very good. And, you know, it’s good, fun.  

  

Interviewer   

 And I have a sneaky suspicion that I have one that’s arrived on my desk this week for me to read.  

Jan O’Neill   

 And that, that’s another thing with the Guild, which is endlessly fascinating. Our patron is the Duke of Gloucester who is very involved. I mean, he often visits the hospitals. Some of our shop volunteers continue to work, you know, throughout lockdown.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 They used to walk into work from the East End, they were wonderful and really kept things going. And his Highness very kindly phoned them and had a long chat with them to thank them for what they were doing. And I think that’s astonishing to have a patron that’s so active, you know, and he, he opens things and, you know, turns up for events, but he really is very, very involved, very involved and very supportive of the volunteers.  

  

Interviewer   

 And volunteers enjoy that recognition, don’t they?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Oh, I think some of them are absolutely thrilled to meet him, you know, he is a nice man and, you know, he had, if you like, a real job, you know, he was an architect. So I think he does understand the world of work perhaps better than some people in these sort of positions do, so…  

Interviewer   

 So, do you think there’s still a need for Friends groups in the NHS today?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Oh goodness. Yes. Because part of the Guild’s aims is to provide amenities for patients not supplied by the National Health Service. And, you know, if the friends aren’t there raising money and doing jobs that would never be paid jobs. I mean, if the shop was taken over by WH Smith, then of course it would be a paid job, but I doubt the National Health Service would have money to take on staff. You know, it’s things like that. And particularly during the pandemic, it’s been such a blessing for the staff as well as patients to have the shop there. That is not going to happen, you know, if it’s done commercially, I don’t think, um, so that’s important.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 I think it’s also, you know, we have a lot of fun, the hospital enjoys some of the things that we do. You wouldn’t get that commercially either, you know, it’s, it just, it’s just part of the hospital. I think it’s part of any hospital. You know, we’ve been visiting a friend in Northwick Park Hospital quite frequently, as he’s always being hospitalised and they’ve got an enormous Friends area there and just the same sort of people, you know, really keen on what they’re doing. Well, they’re only selling greetings cards and chocolate, but they, you know, you might be going into Harrods. It’s wonderful.  

Interviewer   

 They do, they’re very different in each hospital and they do some lovely things. So just the other question, that’s coming to my mind because I’m thinking we’re sitting, talking to you. Yes, geographically, we’re a reasonable distance from Barts. It’s not like you’re a local, Barts is a local district hospital and you all live in a community around it. What draws people to Barts do you think to volunteer?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Oh, well I’ve loved the building all my life. My father worked in Fleet Street and we used to go for lovely walks around the city and we used to walk through the square at Barts and there’d be the nurses in their lovely hats. And, you know, I always thought it was wonderful place, but actually I volunteered originally, tried to volunteer at the local hospital, Whipps Cross.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 And the volunteer organiser was in a, in a bit of a tizz at the time. I think she was having problems. And she said, well, look, why don’t you try Barts? So I thought Yes that’ll do, 20 minutes on the train. Lovely. So, oh, and of course I am a grateful patient. I had my thyroid treated there years ago, so I knew it was an excellent hospital, which, you know, helps when you’re tired. You think we’ll do it. Yes.  

  

Interviewer   

 Excellent. And is there anything else that I haven’t asked you that you were thinking beforehand that you’d like to tell us about?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 Ooh, actually, it’s the fun you have as a volunteer group, you know the Guild does make sure there’s fun. We have the wonderfully named helpers tea every year, which, you know, I imagine in the past was a hospital sheets laid on a table and the tea and buns, a little more sophisticated, but I think one of my best Guild memories is going to that and hearing this totally inspirational talk from a TA, Queen Alexandra’s volunteer, she’s a sister in a hospital, but she does that too. And about her service in Afghanistan and, you know, I wanted to train for nursing immediately and then thought, dont be silly. You’re much too old, but it’s things like that. You know, there are lots of nice events. I wish we could do more actually, because, you know, um, it brings us all together I think, as a group.  

  

Interviewer   

 And out of interest, have you managed to keep in touch with other volunteers throughout this whole lockdown period? Has that relationship continued?  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 So, yes. I mean, it’s, I’m still on the management committee although I’ve done my six years services as a trustee and we have kept in touch and I, our chairman was very keen that everybody, as much as they could emailed or phoned some of the older members, you know, who probably didn’t get out so much, you know, we’ve tried to remain a family. Our previous chairman used to say to people coming to meetings, welcome to the family. It’s a dysfunctional family, but it’s a family.  

  

Interviewer   

 That’s great.  

  

Jan O’Neill   

 And it has got that feeling. Yes.  

  

Interviewer   

 Excellent. Well, thank you ever so much. This has been lovely. Thank you.  

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