Interviewer

So good afternoon. Could I ask you your name first?

 

Shenna Cummins

Shenna Cummins.

 

Interviewer

Nice to meet you Shenna and which friends group are you involved with?

 

Shenna Cummins

Friends of St Mary’s.

 

Interviewer

Thank you. And how old are you?

 

Shenna Cummins

72.

 

Interviewer

Excellent. Well, it’s lovely to meet you today. And what first got you involved in the Leagues of Friends?

 

Shenna Cummins

I wasn’t working at the time, and don’t have any children. And my family said, “why don’t you get a voluntary job or do something”, you know? Yes, I was going out. I started dancing as well, but anyway, I thought, “No, they said what about working as a a volunteer at St. Mary’s”, and I applied and, and then I started working at St. Mary’s hospital.

 

Interviewer

And how long ago was that?

 

Shenna Cummins

I think it was 20 years ago. So Maggie Linford started a few months before me, and I started just after her.

Interviewer

 

Really? And what did you do? What did, what role did they give them to get involved in?

 

Shenna Cummins

 

I was in the sweet shop, and I just had to serve customers who came to the sweet shop. It was very nice, very nice. And we do a flag day. We do the Christmas bazaar at the hospital, and it’s such fun.

 

Interviewer

 

So tell me a bit about the flag day?

 

Shenna Cummins

 

Flag day? We would go to Paddington station or Marylebone station, and just stand. You’re not allowed to shake the tin. Not now. No. <laugh> you couldn’t then either, but so you couldn’t shake the tin, but you stand there, and then people would approach you, and put money in the thing, or you go up to people and say, “I’m a volunteer from the Friends of St. Mary’s hospital. Would you like to contribute to, to our flag day?”

 

Interviewer

 

Yes. And, and it’s really interesting because I can remember talking to a chap called Roy Green, who was at, at the Royal Free Hospital and he told me, this is years and years ago, that there used to be a flag day for all of the London Hospitals across London. And I imagine that was part of that?

 

Shenna Cummins

 

Yes. It probably is connected to it, I would think.

Interviewer

Really? And what did you do? What did, what role did they give them to get involved in?

 

Shenna Cummins

I was in the sweet shop, and I just had to serve customers who came to the sweet shop. It was very nice, very nice. And we do a flag day. We do the Christmas bazaar at the hospital, and it’s such fun.

 

Interviewer

So tell me a bit about the flag day?

 

Shenna Cummins

Flag day? We would go to Paddington station or Marylebone station, and just stand. You’re not allowed to shake the tin. Not now. No. you couldn’t then either, but so you couldn’t shake the tin, but you stand there, and then people would approach you, and put money in the thing, or you go up to people and say, “I’m a volunteer from the Friends of St. Mary’s hospital. Would you like to contribute to, to our flag day?”

 

Interviewer

Yes. And, and it’s really interesting because I can remember talking to a chap called Roy Green, who was at, at the Royal Free Hospital and he told me, this is years and years ago, that there used to be a flag day for all of the London Hospitals across London. And I imagine that was part of that?

 

Shenna Cummins

Yes. It probably is connected to it, I would think.

Interviewer

Yes. But it’s interesting because as we don’t tend to do flag days so much now do we? Flag days aren’t… and you said Christmas bazaar, what was the Christmas bazaar like?

 

Shenna Cummins

The, the bazaar was held generally-We used to have the bazaar up on the second floor, but then it changed from the restaurant for the staff at St. Mary’s after, I can’t remember how many years now, but then we went down, and we had bazaar outside the hospital. Most of it, some of it, was inside the reception, cakes, biscuits and whatever. And then the rest of the bazaar was outside of the hospital on the stalls. And I was usually on the bric-a-brac.

 

Interviewer

And you must have met quite a lot of the community through things like the flag days and the bazaars? You know, people around must have been aware of the, got more aware of the hospital, and the work of the friends?

 

Shenna Cummins

And oh yes. Could you tell them, you say, you know, what they, what we buy and for the hospital. You know, and I remember always selling raffle tickets. I think that was the last, instead of working on bric-a-brac, I said to Maggie, “I don’t want to work on bric-a-brac again. I’ve been on there X amount of years. And so, you know, every Christmas.” So I, I had a tin, and I was selling raffle tickets and, we used to get lovely… It was a chap. He, he got, he went out and got all the lovely prizes for the raffle tickets, you know, dinner for two at the local hotel and, and different things, theatre tickets and everything. And I went around selling raffle tickets. And then I came to one of the staff. I was speaking to one of the staff. They invited me into their coffee room as such. And then I said, we buy so much, you know, for the hospital. And he…and we have a main project. Maggie probably told you about the main project. It’s usually something like £15,000 to £20,000, and the doctors will pitch in. I, we need such, and so, and I’ll pick one doctor and they give that the main thing. But, and I was telling this doctor, he said, “we need some new…” I’ can’t remember now… you put your things in and then you lock it?

 

Interviewer

Oh, lockers?!

 

Shenna Cummins

Little lockers. Yes. And I said, “look, get in contact with the Friend’s Office and they’ll, they’ll do something for you. They’ll get those lockers for you. They’ll buy them for you, you know?” But the other thing, and I said, we used to do go around the pubs. Generally I used to go around the pubs with a lady called Laura, and we’d go all around the local pubs and we did very well.

Interviewer

Yes. So, so I’m used to, for example, I can think I’m thinking it’s prompted a memory of when I was about 18,  when I used to go to one of the local pubs, the Salvation Army would come in with cans and collect money. Yes. And so is that the sort of thing that the Friends used to do as well?

 

Shenna Cummins

Yes, we did that.

 

Interviewer

Yes. And I imagine people were quite generous?

 

Shenna Cummins

Most people are.

 

Interviewer

It feels like from your family suggesting that you might like to go do a bit of volunteering, that it’s become almost a lifestyle for the last 20 years. Is that fair?

Shenna Cummins

Yes! I, yes, because I I’m so missing it now, you know. I think it’s such a shame that I think this hospital Trust are running it now and it. Well, one day we now went in there, into the sweet shop and I had an appointment at St. Mary’s hospital. I went in the sweet, probably a year ago, so, and I couldn’t believe it. I could count on two hands, how many products they had in the shop. And we had, if you name it, we had it in the shop. So people who’ve taken into St Mary’s, say patient emergency, whatever. They’ve got no shampoo, they’ve got no flannels, whatever they haven’t got, and they come down to the sweet shop and we had flannels, So, shampoo, everything, little notebooks, pens, you name it. We had it.

 

Interviewer

And has that come about predominantly because of COVID?

 

Shenna Cummins

I don’t know why, once COVID started, we were all asked not to come back.

 

Interviewer

Well most hospitals, I have to say, their volunteers aren’t back yet. And so hopefully you will be back, but doing what, I’m not sure.

 

Shenna Cummins

I had a hospital appointment about two weeks ago and I met Sue, Sue Rivers. Her husband is the President of the Friends, and she was going around, and I could have done it if I wanted to… go around the hospital. So he was going to a reception, I think, and people can’t find, they don’t know where the Mint Wing, is or whatever ward, and then go, you take them to it. You just, you know, help them find it.

 

Interviewer

So volunteer guides?

 

Shenna Cummins

Yes. Guide, like a guide, really. But at, at the moment my knees are playing me up a bit. So I thought I can’t really do that. I have to sit down, and that sort of thing.

 

Interviewer

But if they wanted you to do fundraising again, you’d like to do that?

Shenna Cummins

Oh yes. Yes. I still do. Yes. I like going around the pubs and, and, and standing out saying…and last time we were in Paddington Station about six weeks ago, whenever it was, Anita came didn’t you? and yes. It’s fine.

 

Interviewer

Excellent. So when you thought about me coming to talk to you, was there anything else that you wanted to tell me that you haven’t had the chance to tell me yet?

 

Shenna Cummins

No, I can’t think all I can say is it’s such fun. People are nice in the shop, who came into the shop, the customers, the visitors, the staff. And I can only say I’ve only, maybe can’t even put it on one hand. How many people have ever been rude to me? Never, next to never.

 

Interviewer

Well, my guess is you wouldn’t still be keen to do it?

 

Shenna Cummins

No.

 

Interviewer

So, excellent. Thank you ever so much. And thank you for your time today.