Interviewer

So could I start by asking your name?

Stacie Hopley

So my name’s Stacie Hopley

Interviewer

And Stacie, which league of friends are we talking about today?

Stacie Hopley

The League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen

Interviewer

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

Stacie Hopley

I’m 23.

Interviewer

Thank you for coming in today. So, Stacie, are you a local girl? Have you always lived around here?

Stacie Hopley

Yes, I’ve always lived in Carmarthen. And I’ve used the hospital a lot growing up as well, so it’s nice to kind of do something to give back to the local community.

Interviewer

Okay. So when you say that you’ve grown up around here, did you go to school around here?

Stacie Hopley

Yes, I’ve gone to school around here, and I work around here as well. So I’ve always been in Carmarthen.

Interviewer

Okay. So tell me a bit about your work. What do you do for your work?

Stacie Hopley

So I work for the hospital health board, and I work for the volunteering team. So I do the paperwork side of all the volunteers who want to come into the hospital.

Interviewer

Okay. So for people who don’t know what that might involve, what sort of things do you do as part of that paperwork?

Stacie Hopley

So we do DBS checks, Occupational Health checks, do a couple of interviews with potential volunteers, and get them started,  inductions and things like that because there are loads of different roles and, hospitals to volunteer in. So we just do all of the paperwork side of things.

Interviewer

Okay. And where do those volunteers come from?

Stacie Hopley

From all different backgrounds. You can get some who are in school, who want to become doctors, and they want a hospital experience, or you can get some older people, a lot of retired nurses who miss the hospital, and want to come back. So you get a variety of people who want to volunteer.

Interviewer

Excellent. And how did you then get involved in the League of Friends?

Stacie Hopley

So the League of Friends worked closely with my team at work to raise awareness, and recruit more volunteers, and they put out a poster that they needed more volunteers, and I was reading it, and I thought “oh this is actually something that I could do to contribute to helping the hospital, and supporting the staff”. So I thought “I’ll give it a go”, and I went to the first meeting, and I really enjoyed it, and I thought it was really positive so I thought I might as well do it. I’ve got some spare time.

Interviewer

So what did you really enjoy about the League of Friends?

Stacie Hopley

I thought it was quite interesting to see all of the donations that were coming in from loads of different people, and how it was being used to buy things like chairs, the simple things that you wouldn’t think are really important. And we have the Head of Nursing, she comes to the meetings, and she gives us a hospital update every month, and it’s interesting to hear about how things are on the ground, and how much the donation, the work that the League of Friends do contributes to helping just relieve a little bit of the pressure.

Interviewer

Excellent. And what role have they got you involved in in the friends?

Stacie Hopley

I’m the Secretary so I do the minutes every meeting, and I send out all of the emails to the members for anything that they need to know about during the month before the meeting.

Interviewer

Okay, and are there any other duties involved in being Secretary?

Stacie Hopley

I also do the Facebook page, yes.

Interviewer

Okay, so what happens on the Facebook page?

Stacie Hopley

So we just share a couple of updates, if we purchase something, and the people who have achieved  it the minimum is  to advertise it a little bit. We put up on the Facebook group. And currently we’re doing a tractor run, so we’re using the Facebook page to post in local Facebook groups to get more people to hear about us, and hear about the tractor run.

Interviewer

So did you start the Facebook page?

Stacie Hopley

I did, yes. because we were thinking about how we can recruit more members. I thought “well I’m always on Facebook, my Dad’s always on Facebook” so I thought “oh why not have a go at Facebook, see if we can get anyone from there.’’

Interviewer

And how long ago was that?

Stacie Hopley

Oh I think it was about a year ago. Yes.

Interviewer

And how many people have you got linked to Facebook at the moment?

Stacie Hopley

At the minute we’ve got about 80 people who have joined the group so that’s really good. But we’re just slowly growing it, and with this tractor run that’s increased. A lot more people have joined since then because they’ve been seeing the poster, and they’ve been reading more about us then.

Interviewer

Excellent. Because I have to say not all friends group have got a Facebook page so that’s a really good project that you’ve done there. And do I gather you’ve got a website as well?

Stacie Hopley

Yes, so we have another member on the committee, Hugh. He’s really good with websites so he’s programmed the website, and he works closely with me, so if he posts something on the website I’ll try, and push it on the Facebook. We can work together like that.

Interviewer

So how long have you had a website as well?

Stacie Hopley

The website’s been a couple of years. I think me and Hugh started around the same time, which was about three years ago. Yes, so he’s taken it over since then, and he’s upgraded it a little bit, but I’m not too sure how long the website’s been about actually.

Interviewer

Okay. But they’re all good things for trying to recruit new people.

Stacie Hopley

Yes, exactly. And just raising the awareness of the League of Friends because a lot of people don’t know what it is. So once they hear about it they’re like “oh right, okay’’. So Yes.

Interviewer

Excellent. So what keeps you involved? What means that you keep coming to meetings?

Stacie Hopley

I think it’s the knowledge of the other members. I really appreciate hearing them, because a lot of them have been with the League for quite a while, and it’s nice to hear about stuff that they’ve done in the past and how I can help contribute for the future then as well by hearing stuff that they’ve purchased before. If we get a new purchase, one of the members like Arthur, might say “Oh Yes I remember purchasing this back 15 years ago’’ And it’s like “oh wow, that’s really good”.

Interviewer

Excellent. That’s lovely to hear. So when you knew you were speaking to me today, is there anything you wanted to tell me you haven’t had the chance to say?

Stacie Hopley

I just think it’s important to kind of raise the profile of League of Friends for the younger generation because it’s good to share the knowledge that the older generation may pass down, and I think if more people get involved we can continue the legacy of the League of Friends. It has been quite difficult to recruit new members so it’d be lovely to get some more people on board of any age really. But it would just be good to keep awareness of it. That’s all really.

Interviewer

Brilliant. Thank you ever so much and thank you for your time today.

Stacie Hopley

No problem. Thank you.