Interviewer

Could we start by me asking your name?

Colin Griffith

Colin Griffith.

Interviewer

And could I ask what Friends group we’re talking about today?

Colin Griffith

Glan Clywd.  Yes.

Interviewer

And could I ask how old you are?

Colin Griffith

I’m 71.

Interviewer

Thank you. Nice to meet you. So what first got you involved in volunteering?

Colin Griffith

Well, going back to when I was about in my twenties and there was the Adult Lit programme, I was at a loose end on a couple of nights in the week, and I started doing that, and friends that I made there, and I’m still sort of friends with now, although I’ve moved on a long time since then. And then I didn’t do an awful lot of volunteering, except for school governors because I married, had children, got involved on school governors, which is another heavy volunteering role, which I tried to get out of a few times, <Laugh>. I went as a Parent Governor, I was asked to be a Parent Governor. And I thought right, when the infants, my children had passed them, they wouldn’t want me. And they said, well it’s a joint one with the juniors but we have a separate governing body.

Colin Griffith

So, and then when that finished, because you did four year stints, they said, well at the time I was in retail in Holywell. They said, well can you come as a member of the business community? So it took me a long time to get out really. Not that I wanted to get out, but I just thought, as your children grow, you haven’t got the interest really. I stopped doing it and then I didn’t do an awful lot of volunteering then, had a few years off until I actually retired in retail. But things changed so much in the high street. But I went to work in care and I went to work in Mencap which is down the road here. But we used to have nice long holidays because it was like educational. So I used to do some shifts here, paid shifts on the bank and on the wards.

Colin Griffith

So I was always used to the hospital, you know, situation and caring. Finished up working for occupational therapy. I thought,  I just don’t want to do nothing. I didn’t want to retire and do nothing. So through a friend of a friend,  they wanted people on the desk. So that’s different to the League of Friends and that was with the RVS at the time, so I used to just do relief shifts, so to get to know it.  How I got involved with the League of Friends because I was doing the relief shifts and only wanted to do a couple of days a week, certain days. And there wasn’t always the availability. So they were desperate for people at the time in the shop in the evenings. And I’d been, used to working in the evenings so I started at the League of Friends working evenings, but now I do both <laugh>. Anything else?

Interviewer

Yes. So do you have any favourite memories of being involved here?

Colin Griffith

I sort of remember going back and this is in the seventies when I was, you know, with the Adult Lit, young people that I helped there, and you sort of wonder, you know, what happened to them. And it was a nice way of getting involved and really because I worked with sort of young people that wanted to learn to read and that, that sort of got me into working for Mencap, which I worked for them for 20 years. So that’s a favourite memory. I just like meeting people, you know, I do meet an awful lot of people that I’ve worked with or come in contact with in different, like here because you see so many people that you know.  I mean not a day goes past on the front desk or in the cafe that I don’t see someone I know , because a huge customer base they used to have in Holywell, they all come here, you know, their local large hospital. It’s just sort of meeting people again, you know, and having a quick chat with them and seeing how they’re getting on.  I remember one of my first shifts on working in the shop and there was a gentleman who was well in his nineties, and he was my trainer and that was a <laugh>, that’s a happy memory. Yes. And I haven’t seen him since. I just hope he’s still around somewhere or other. Yes.

Interviewer

So it feels like you do a lot in the Hospital?

Colin Griffith

Yes. I’m trying not to do as much, because you get involved in other things. because I actually did some guiding down the Greenfield Valley as well. That will come to the end at the end of the summer. Yes, I do a lot. I used to do Mondays here on the, on the front desk regularly, but now we sort of share it between three of us, so there’s usually one of us here, and actually I’ve got a daughter in Australia and I’m going there for a month, later in the month, so it is flexible, that’s the thing, it’s very flexible,  volunteering.

Interviewer

So if I was somebody who was thinking about doing some volunteering, would you encourage me to come and have a look here to see if there was something?,

Colin Griffith

Yes.  Definitely. Yes, definitely. I think you’ve got to be committed and want to do it. There’s no point in thinking, “oh I’ll give it a go”, and you have to sort of get involved with a group as well. I think that helps really. It’s nice to get involved with the group.

Interviewer

Well thank you. Thank you ever so much. And it’s been lovely to meet you

Colin Griffith

Today. Alright. Okay, thank you.