Interviewer

So perhaps I could start by asking your name.

Irene Ireland

I’m Irene Ireland.

Interviewer

And which League of Friends are we talking about today?

Irene Ireland

Deeside Community Hospital.

Interviewer

Thank you. And could I ask how old you are, Irene?

Irene Ireland

85.

Interviewer

And looking very glamorous for 85 <laugh>. Okay.  So what first got you involved in volunteering?

Irene Ireland

My father passed away in Mancot Hospital. And the hospital was up for being turned into something else,  and they were building a new hospital, and my father watched that hospital being built because it’s just across from where he lived. And,  unfortunately, my Dad died. And Megan Jolly, who is my friend now, was the sister in Mancot Hospital. I gave the money to Mancot Hospital because I’d heard two of the nurses talking about leg ulcers, and how “oh, they’d love this piece of equipment”, to be able to have one. So Megan rang me, and said, “why don’t you join the League of Friends”? She rang me to thank me for the money, and that’s the beginning of my volunteering.

Interviewer

And how long ago was this?

Irene Ireland

33 years ago.

Interviewer

Excellent. So you’ve been involved for a while. So you start off at Mancot? Yes. And what do they get you to do at Mancot?

Irene Ireland

Well, I was just one of the Committee, they didn’t have a coffee bar. They were just solely there to raise funds. They used to have Christmas Fairs, but always in a church hall, because there wasn’t enough room in the hospital. So it was just basically that.

Interviewer

Excellent. And did you stay at Mancot ?

Irene Ireland

The last annual general meeting at Mancot, prior to it closing, and being transferred to Deeside Community Hospital, the Committee of Mancot Hospital said that they weren’t coming to Deeside, that they were finishing. So, subsequently there was more people there. We all looked at one another, as you usually do. And nobody volunteered. I’d only been a member about 12 to 18 months. And of course I said, “oh, all right, then I’ll do it”. And that’s how it happened for me to go to Deeside.

Interviewer

Was Deeside very different from Mancot?

Irene Ireland

At Deeside,  they had outpatients clinics. It was a modern purpose built building. They had lots of things that they never had at Mancot.

Interviewer

And so did the League of Friends do different things there?

Irene Ireland

Yes, but we’ve got a coffee bar.

Interviewer

Okay.

Irene Ireland

Which we run, and get volunteers to man. So that’s really it, basically, but we do at Deeside, more or less what they used to do at Mancot, like coffee mornings, garden fetes and things like that.

Interviewer

Lots of fundraising.

Irene Ireland

Yes. Over the years.

Interviewer

I feel like it’s become an important part of your life? Is that fair?

Irene Ireland

Well, it did, yes. But as I’m getting older, I’m afraid I’m waning a bit. As I say, before I’ve been the Chairman, I’ve been Vice Chairman, and then I was Treasurer.  One treasurer left, and I managed to get somebody I knew very well to come, and join the League of Friends. It was a man, and wife. And I knew the man very well. Somebody that lived by my Mum, and Barry’s father, and Doug’s mother. They all lived together years ago. Well, not together, neighbours. Doug took the Treasurer’s job over, you know, so it was working really, really well. And we had about, well, Jean probably knows, about 31 members.

Interviewer

So you have stuck at it for 30 odd years. What are the bits you enjoyed most while you were there?

Irene Ireland

Well, really everything.  I enjoyed doing all the fundraising, and luckily my husband was a good backup to me. You know, men. Because we didn’t have any men. I think we had two.  Men don’t come very often to be with a lot of women, so my husband backed me up. Megan Jolly’s husband, Dr. Jolly, he used to come, they used to put the tables up, and things like that, you know. So yes, I enjoyed that.  I didn’t mind doing bucket collections. I used to do the coffee bar, everything.

Interviewer

And what would you say, over all your years, has been the biggest achievement?

Irene Ireland

Well, our achievement is we, in Deeside hospital, we’ve now got scanners. We’ve got an ultrasound scanner. And when the hospital first opened, we had a meeting, and we invited the hospital,  invited lots of people to come along to the meeting. They said, the hospital management, said they would love to have an ultrasound scanner at the hospital because it does save people going to the acute hospitals to get scans. So we’ve raised money for five, and we have got enough money in the bank at the moment to buy another one. So that’s, I think that’s an achievement.

Interviewer

Absolutely.

Irene Ireland

Because they, you know, over the years, of course they, but luckily the acute hospital at Wrexham, the last one we bought, they had to buy some, and they get deals, you know, the more you buy the better. So we went in with them. Another achievement is that I’m connected to a church in Shorten, and one of the men there are connected to Health Help International. And we gave our scanners that were finished but not quite finished, but enough to go out to different countries, and they’ve shipped them out. So, you know, we feel like we’ve done good throughout the World. Really. Yes.

Interviewer

So you started volunteering in your fifties and now you are in your eighties, I don’t like to emphasise age <laugh>, but you’ve stuck at it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. If you were talking to somebody who’s sitting, and thinking about whether volunteering might be for them, what would you say to recommend it?

Irene Ireland

Oh yes. I think, because I was only 50 something. I lost all interest in my job in the bank. They were bringing in too many things for me. You know, new things that I thought, I don’t need this. And I think volunteering was my saving grace because I just didn’t finish, and sit at home, and do nothing. I was already a member of the League of Friends, and the transition was, the girls in the hospital one day said to me, I’ve got job for you. I said, “oh, thank you”. Yes. Selling baby milk at a clinic. And I used to go there one day a week, you know, and little things has been really good for me.

Interviewer

Excellent. Yes. Now, when you knew you were going to  be meeting me today, did you have anything you thought you might want to tell me,  you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

Irene Ireland

No, not really. I’ve told you all about, you know, but like when Doug, our treasurer,  passed away very suddenly, and his wife presented me with the books, I took it but thinking that somebody would come along, and take it off me.  For somebody that had done it before, not like me, in at the deep end, but that’s five years ago. I said I was going to resign, and I’m still here.

Interviewer

<Laugh>. Okay, so they’re not letting you escape quite yet then.

Irene Ireland

Yes , I’d stay a member of the League of Friends, but I don’t want any added responsibility. But I have got someone that joined the League. And she very kindly does all my, I do the books or add certain amounts of money, but she takes the coffee bar money,  counts it, banks it,  because it’s a lot of work, and heavy when you’ve got big bags of coin to take to the bank. We haven’t got a bank now.

Interviewer

No. So the good old finance processes, you are the bookkeeper, and she’s the cashier.

Irene Ireland

Well, yes. More or less. Yes,

Interviewer

Absolutely. Yes. But, yes we are good at that in the League of Friends, aren’t we? We are creative. We come up with,

Irene Ireland

With ideas.  Yes. To help

Interviewer

Make it easier.

Irene Ireland

Yes yes

Interviewer

So that’s been fantastic. Thank you ever so much.