Interviewer
So, in the conversations we’ve already had today, it feels like the hospital is still really important to you. You still think about it, and you also mentioned about you paying for some things in memory of Bill, for example.
Pauline Spratt
I just wanted to leave a mark. We’d been there, we’d done so much, and at the time, I was looking for something to donate to the hospital. I wanted to donate a shelter because Bill, and I had a session one day where I took him to the hospital in the wheelchair on a beautiful sunny day. There he was with his short sleeve shirt on. We came out of the hospital to pouring rain, and there was nowhere to shelter, and look for the taxi at the same time. So, I thought, they need a shelter here, we’d look for that, but unfortunately powers said, “No, we can’t have one there.” It was too public. So, I had to make do with a bench.
Interviewer
What’s your favourite memory of your time with the Friends group?
Pauline Spratt
There are so many really, and the enthusiasm from the different volunteers. It was always, “Oh yes, I’ll help you with that Pauline, but can you sort it out?” It is true that they do need somebody at the head to point them in the right direction. One lady, a member, was a very, very keen gardener. She grew the plants, and then brought them into our sales table. That turned to be a popular event. I’ve got one story of a nurse who stopped me in the corridor one day. “I’ve got this gentleman who’s been with us for quite a while now and unfortunately, he can’t go home yet because he can’t go anywhere without his oxygen cylinder. We’ve been trying to work out a way of how we can get him home.” “Well, if the League can help, we will.” I went along to meet with him, and it was a very pleasant gentleman, but obviously was fed up with being in the hospital. He told me he missed his wife’s cooking. This would’ve been in around 2010. We were looking at what his problems were, and one of them was the portability of the oxygen cylinder, and all it needed was for us to buy him a backpack. So, we set him up with that. I had a lovely letter from him and his wife saying how much they enjoyed it. He was able to go home one day a week. His wife cooked him a beautiful meal, and he was well satisfied with that. After that, he moved on to going home every weekend, just for one day, then two days. He was able to be discharged from hospital with plenty of care by his side, and his proverbial backpack with him. A small donation from the League, but it made such a difference to him. Another thing we did purchase was a rocking horse. The children’s department was having an upgrade, and I thought everybody needs a rocking horse. So, I found that there was a local company that used to make them for Harrod’s, and I thought, “Well, we can’t go much higher than that.” So, I went to see if I could do a deal. I managed to persuade them to sell us one for half price, which was still quite expensive, but it was certainly well used. 15 years later, I was searching for another maker, because that one had gone out of business, and another maker would be able to repair the old rocking horse. He had some reins, and new hair, new tail. He came back looking as good as the new one. I remember the repair costing was far more than the original cost.
Interviewer
That’s excellent. So, looking across the years of volunteering, what does the Friends group do today?
Pauline Spratt
It’s changed a lot. After Bill passed away, I was not so good myself, decided that it was time for me to stand down. Bill and I used to go out into the community, doing an awful lot of different fundraising activities. One of the big ones we did was the demolition of the Drakelow Power Station. Everybody in Burton knew about Drakelow Power Station, about the dust that it threw onto all the cars when we knew that they’d fired up again. Bill was disappointed to do this one, because it was where he worked most of the time, and he was disappointed we were going to be knocking down his place of work. I never thought the day would come when I’d be standing in the middle of a wet field at 11 o’clock at night, listening to the rustling in the grass to watch the towers be demolished. We had a young man from the power station there telling us what was going to happen. He built us a box with the big press button, but we’d organised a big raffle, and the winner of the raffle prize was to press the button. So, this young man turned up, and stood at the box, and we said, “Right, press the button now.” He pressed it, but nothing happened. So we pressed it again, and nothing happened. Then, this young man from the electricity board, “Hang on a minute, I better go and check the cables.” Half an hour later, he came back, and fortunately, we’d got a caravan there that was serving coffee, and that kept us happy. He came back and said, “I’m sorry, but the rabbits have eaten through the cables. I’ve repaired them so can we have another go?” So, the young man pressed the button again, and blast, it all went down, and it was very, very effective. At 11 o’clock at night, the police were worried that it might stop the traffic, and that was why they turned the time around, because the public wanted us to do it in the middle of the day. So, selling the raffle tickets, we worked with another gentleman who was raising money for our local hospice. He was braver than me, going into the pubs and persuading people to buy the tickets, and not many of our, dare I say, elderly ladies were popular at going in the pubs either. Between us, we raised nearly 17,000 pounds. So, it shows how popular the towers were.
