Interviewer

So could we start by me asking you your name?

Tina

Yeah, my name is Bettina Ann Fairclough.

Interviewer

Okay.

Tina

And people call me Tina.

Interviewer

Excellent, thank you Tina. And we also have ?

David

David Fairclough, not the footballer.

Interviewer

Okay. And could I ask your ages?

Tina and David

80, 82.

Interviewer

Excellent, and I’m going to be cheeky now. How long have you been married?

Tina

61 years in September.

Interviewer

Excellent, excellent. So, you’ve done your 60th celebration now it’s 61? Could I ask what League of Friends we are talking about today?

Tina

We are now talking about Aintree Hospital League of Friends. It’s now merged with the Liverpool Royal Hospital, and Broad Green Hospital. So it makes it very different, very difficult to communicate with people, to be honest, and when you need to because they’re all over different places.

Interviewer

Okay. So you are one League of Friends though?

Tina

No. We’re the only League of Friends as far as that.

David

It’s the League of Friends for Aintree and the Walton Centre League of  Friends. And the Walton Centre is a separate hospital next door.

Interviewer

Okay, that’s really good

Tina

I explained,  originally we were Walton Hospital, and the Walton Centre  was part of Walton Hospital. It was all one Trust. And now they are a separate Trust. But we are still the League of Friends for both of the hospitals.

Interviewer

So I’ve already picked up that you are sort of quite active people. How did you get involved in the League of Friends?

Tina

Well, one Christmas we were invited to go to our neighbour’s house, which we were each year for a cocktail party. And I met a lady there called Mrs. Kelly who’d been involved, with her husband, for many years with the League of Friends. And she said they were desperate to have more people to help. And would I go along, I said, “well I’m awfully sorry. I am an assistant head teacher. I work full time, and I have four children, and this house to look after.” So someone said, “I do know a friend whose mother’s just had breast cancer, and been in Walton Hospital, so I could ask her because she has plenty of spare time.”  And she went along, and she said she would never go again because the people on the committee were all arguing about a washing machine, that had broken down, that they bought for the nurses to wash their uniforms. And she said it was just quite horrendous. So she said, “unless you come with me, Tina,” she said “I would not go again.”

Interviewer

And roughly when in time are we talking about

Tina

The early eighties.

Interviewer

Okay.

Tina

1980’s.

Interviewer

So for 40 odd years ago. Oh yes. And 40 years have gone by, and you’re still there. So there must have been something that kept you there.

Tina

Oh I love it. Yes. I absolutely love it. When I give talks, I always say to people, “you get so much from doing it, it’s not what you give.” People say, “oh thanks.” And I don’t want thanks, you know? Well that sounds horrible, but no, I just love it. I’ve always loved it, and that, and that’s it. And even my own husband couldn’t understand, and he didn’t get involved for quite a long, long time. And then he got involved because he wasn’t going to see much of me if he didn’t get involved. And then the whole, one way or another, the whole family, and it always has been a family affair. That’s the only way we’ve been able to do it. Everybody’s been involved. Daughters, granddaughter was always a fairy. Grandsons were the trainee Father Christmases. And it’s just been the most wonderful experience I could have had.

Interviewer

And when we were chatting, you said your mum also got involved as well?

Tina

That’s right. My mother, and father, they got involved, and my mother used to do a stall in the main foyer on the Sunday because there was nowhere open for patients or the visitors to buy anything. And we used to have items there for people to buy.

David

When the old hospital closed down, we had a car boot sale every Sunday in the grounds of the ex hospital.

Interviewer

Okay. So was that a big affair? What was that?

David

That was very big <laugh>.

Tina

We used to raise thousands every week, and the hospital used to have the security people there, and they used to come, and collect the money, and take it. We had a little office, and we had staff, well volunteers that used to count the money as it came through. And obviously there was a lot of security on it, and we had a lot of fun with that as well. We used to be there six o’clock in the morning.

David

It was just after I used to leave the house at four o’clock in the morning. Yes. <Laugh> And I remember particularly in the car at four o’clock in the morning the day that Princess Diana died. Oh yes. Four o’clock in the morning it was, I was driving down, and it came on the radio.

Interviewer

So you were both working full time, and doing all of this volunteering?

Tina (04:58):

Oh yes. We were next day in school. Back in school, absolutely shattered from the car boot. “Oh, hello. Yes, good morning. Good morning. How are you?” <Laugh>.

Interviewer

So you started in the eighties? Yes. And at the beginning, I assume you weren’t straight into the committee, you were just volunteering or how did that work?

Tina

No, no, I wasn’t a committee member, and I was invited to be a committee member. Yes. My friend, and I went along, and yes, it was quite, I just thought there was no energy to it. Okay. To the committee, and,  I just thought come, and see, you know, some sort do. So they asked for volunteers to do the Christmas Fair. So I said, “okay, I’ll do the Christmas Fair.” And I got the radio presenter, Billy Butler, and he came along, and opened it. And I got the Lion Cubs to bring their Father Christmas float. And we had Father Christmas and, we made quite a lot of money.  Actually at that Christmas Fair we made more money than they brought in all year. So that was a mistake, in a way, I mean, I just so enjoyed doing that, and I had all my friends involved in doing it. And a lot of those then came along to the League of Friends. And at one stage we had one of the youngest League of Friends in the country. But we did have Mrs. Lowe who let us down because she is a lot older. <Laugh>

Interviewer (06:19):

Well, hopefully we’ll meet Mrs. Lowe at some stage.

Tina

Oh, I hope so. That would be so lovely.

Interviewer

Was your League of Friends mainly about fundraising?

Tina

Yes, fortunately it went that way. It was very much.

David

We used to buy pieces of equipment, which the consultants used to come along, and sort of tell us what they wanted, and we’d say yes or no, we can raise the money for that. And that’s what we did. We raised money for pieces of equipment.

Interviewer

So you didn’t have a shop or a trolley or anything like that?

Tina

We’ve done all those things. Yes. We didn’t have a shop. We’ve done so many things. We’ve thrown thousands of yellow ducks in the Albert Dock. You got the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and the editor of the newspaper, and me to go in a rowing boat, and pick the winning ducks out of the river, out of the docks. And we’ve done so many things. We’ve done, as I said, we did the car boot, we did that for seven years. We’ve had a trolley going around the hospital twice a day. Well, as I say, we’ve had lots of volunteers. We  had the office and we had a great deal of support from Attend. We had a lot of funding, three lots of funding for different coordinators of volunteers. Excellent. That was absolutely excellent. And it was so successful, the idea being that you, the hospital then take it over, the hospital took it over and it really blossomed.

 

Interviewer

Yes. I can remember meeting Terry in the past and Norma, Terry Owens and Norma  They were hospital staff who, who took on some of the them.

Tina

Terry Owens was a nurse in the Walton Hospital, and she came along to the League of Friends meetings, etcetera. So the first lot of funding I got, I got for Terry Owens. Terry Owens worked with us for two years, and it was after that they were asking our volunteers to do things I just was not happy about. And the volunteers were ringing me, and complaining about the sort of things they were asking them to do, wash patients, and things. The thing that really upset me was they were asking volunteers to feed patients. Yes. And I know how difficult it is because of working in the school for children with physical disabilities, when you’re trying to feed someone they can easily choke. And they’ve had no training to do anything like that. So they were just asked to start feeding anyway. That’s when we went to a meeting, and the hospital agreed to take it over.  Yes. And they gave Terry the job.

Interviewer

And, and I always think, you know, that there is a place for all sorts of different volunteering in the hospitals.

Tina

Exactly. Exactly. And there’s a place for people, well, the vast majority of people. On the Committee, you don’t want a Committee made up of all the same people. You look at people, and you look for, what their talents are. And people all have talents of different sorts. And just because it isn’t a talent that I’ve got, that’s wonderful, and so instead of asking for people to just come along, and volunteer, I used to ask for a particular role. So people all were allocated roles at one time. And then we, we’d ask for someone who had the skills to fill that particular role. And that worked so well that you get volunteers who came along, and thought they didn’t have anything much that they could offer. And it was quite amazing. And they’re usually the people that have got so much to offer. Amazing. You know, you don’t have to have qualifications to be able to volunteer, and offer those people who have got empathy. And it can relate to people. They’re the volunteers, you know, they give so much. Absolutely. But anyway, I just think volunteering is wonderful. Because I honestly know that the whole of my family has had so much from volunteering. That’s it really.

Interviewer

So you told me that you’d helped organise the Royal visit.

Tina

Oh yes. So what happened was we raised the money, this is a long story now. They appointed Erwin Rodrigues, who was the consultant cardiologist, and is now a very good friend. I used to go to a meeting every week with him, the editor of the staff, and the Chief Executive, who was in post then. Erwin used to be in the meeting, and he’d say, “oh, I’m sorry, excuse me. They’re calling me.” And he would come back, and he had had to decide which patient would go on the bed. There were six beds in intensive care at that time. And so he was allocated three of them, something like that. And he had to decide if one of those patients could come off the equipment, so that somebody who just had a heart attack could go on it. And he said “it’s like being God, and it is just a ridiculous situation.”

Tina

And there was no heart unit in either Fazakerley or Walton. Exactly. Or, well, he, he’d asked me if we could raise money for the equipment. We negotiated with the hospital,  as we had raised all the money for the equipment,  that they would provide a six bedded unit. That’s where the six came from. And he would obviously oversee it, and they’d train the staff, and they’d do whatever. But it was just the impetus they wanted. And that’s the way, you know. And so we raised all the money for that. And then, it was at the same time as Hillsborough, and I’d been working with the Hillsborough families, and we asked them if they would like to come along, and they came along to meetings, and things, and I asked them if we could name the ward, the Hillsborough Heart Unit. And they said yes, certainly.

 

Tina

And I asked them if they thought, if I got someone to open the ward, would they, you know? Oh yes. They were delighted. So, and the hospital were not, they were quite iffy really,  although the Lord Lieutenant, came, and spoke to them, and that was very good, and everything. And in the end they decided to fully support us. But they said, look Tina, you do it, and we’ll support you. So I did. And I got all the invitations printed, and I invited everybody. There had to be the security, you know, on morning. And what I did is I asked each person on the League of Friends to bring someone who was very important to them so they could, you know, be there. And it was just, it was wonderful. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and they’d roll up in their big cars, and the police escorts, and everything. And the Chairman was there, and the Chief Executive, and, little old me. So which Royal was it? The Duchess of Kent. Yes. Lovely. She was very supportive to the Hillsborough families. And Trevor Hicks was really, he’s a very good friend.

David

He lost two daughters, who died.

Tina

Trevor Hicks. Yes. His two daughters died at Hillsborough. And then we had one of the nurses in the hospital on the Walton Center lost her 14-year-old son. Her husband came along, and he was on the committee with us for quite a long time. And he’s had a stroke now. But they’re still part of everything. The extended family

Interviewer

Exactly. You never stop.

Tina

No. There are so many people. I was only thinking when you said you want the interview, so many people that have done so much over the years, just quite amazing. And the thing that got us the most publicity was the car boot sale, because we were there with the community, you know, and they were getting something from it. And they actually met you, and they saw you weren’t ridiculous, but maybe they thought we were.

David

The duck dip in the Albert Dock was one of the big, big things. The Lord Mayor of Liverpool had to pick a duck.

Tina

You had to pick from thousands of yellow plastic ducks.

David

Ducks in the dock.

Tina

I mean, Paul numbered them up.

David

Lord Mayor of Liverpool had to pick one out of the river, and the number that he picked out was the winner of a thousand pounds.

Tina

It was winner to get us all that money

David

It was a Japanese person who’d gone back to Japan. So the League got the thousand pounds <laugh>.

Tina

Well it is from David’s point of view, because being an accountant, that’s what he thinks of,  money. No, I actually think the things I enjoyed most was particularly Christmas, when we spent nearly a week going around, every single patient, every ward got a present, and every patient, and particularly Aintree was very, very big. And then we also did the Walton Centre, and we had David Woods, the Chief Executive  who used to dress up as Father Christmas. And as I say, my eldest granddaughter was a fairy. But the problem was she always went in the ward, and the idea was she gave every patient a Christmas wish, and having done my degrees in Psychology, it was fantastic, it had an amazing effect on people. So she would tell them, she’s going to give you a Christmas wish, but you mustn’t tell anybody because it wouldn’t come true. She gave this Christmas wish, but unfortunately if there were young boys in the ward that were,  you know, visiting, she wouldn’t go in that ward <laugh>, she didn’t like boys. Unfortunately she changed later.

Interviewer

<Laugh>. I’ve really got a great picture. Now David, have you always been the help with Tina or have you had any specific roles of your own in the League of Friends?

David

Well, I’ve been to every meeting, I think

Tina

<Laugh> No you haven’t. Only later on the last 20, 25 years.

David

Well, obviously I was doing all the accounts at the end.

Tina

Yes. We always had the Nat West bank manager. Okay. Who came along, and that was part of their community. So they did that as a community thing. And then they stopped all that. All the banks did, they just stopped. And we tried to get somebody, and nobody was interested at all in doing anything like that. So we did have people, we had people that have helped with, even when we didn’t need to, we had the accounts

Interviewer

Independently examined?

Tina

Exactly. But that’s the thing that worries me most actually. That you be responsible for that money.

Interviewer

You’ve been a big League of Friends, you’ve done a lot of stuff, and actually there’s been a lot of responsibility associated with that.

Tina

Oh yes. There has.

Interviewer

Over the years. Yes. But, you strike me as a couple that carry responsibility. Well you’ve done it in your professional jobs. And you do it in your volunteering.

Tina

That’s true. That’s very true. And obviously where I worked, and I work with the children with physical disabilities, I fundraise for them as well. Easy fundraising for children, I’ve got to say. I would say that’s one of the easiest things to fundraise for. But having said that, the most joy has been working in the hospitals with League of Friends. because I’ll tell you something else, this is ridiculous. When I was thinking what I might like to do, and I left school, my mother decided I had a choice of two things. And one of them was to be a secretary, and the other one was to be a nurse. Well, I hated the sight of blood, and I don’t like anything to do with hospitals, so I felt I was letting my mother down I think. So it was my way of probably being in the hospitals, and you know, giving back.

Tina

I don’t know, it was just, honestly, it’s a wonderful experience. Volunteering. It just is fantastic, and the whole family has benefited from doing that. The grandson got an award at school when they were in the juniors, didn’t they?  It was the Ormskirk Round Table, for all the work he’d done there, and he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to do it, but the head teacher put him forward for it for. And so two of them have done that. And the one that’s at Manchester University now, he got pens and sold them, and raised 500 pounds for one of the appeals we were doing. And you know, little things like that. But it taught them so much to give, and you can tell people to do things, but they’ve got to experience it themselves, and they experience then how good they feel about doing something, you know? I just wish more people realise, because now the younger generation don’t seem to want to do the volunteering. I mean that’s stereotyping, I  realise, but if they realised how much they get from doing it. But you have to give a lot because when you give a lot, you get a lot back and you get it.

David

Almost like the Duke of Edinburgh Award, was one of the things that, you know, gave them that

Tina

Oh yes. I’ve met most of the Royal family. So after the Royal visit, we were then absolutely amazed to be invited to go to Buckingham Palace, didn’t we? To see into the Queen’s Garden party. So we were supposed to take our youngest daughter, and because our youngest daughter was severely autistic , and would probably have run away, and we’d probably never have seen her again. We asked if we could take the daughter that had done the most with us in the hospital, and there is a picture of her somewhere in the other room, isn’t there? And that was wonderful experience.  At the time you couldn’t take photographs or anything. And we met at the Royal family, it was the hottest day of the year. It was 103 degrees, and everybody was fainting, and all the cakes were melting. They ran out of lemonade and water and St. John’s Ambulance had a very busy time.

Interviewer

A great memory to have though.

Tina

Oh, absolutely. Fantastic. When you actually experience it, it means a lot. Yes, it means a lot. It was wonderful.

Interviewer

Is there anything else we want to say before we switch off the recording?

Tina

Yes. The Chief Exec, David Wood, asked us if we would do something. They wanted to be the first, to have an MRI scanner at Aintree Hospital and he said me Mersey Region don’t want them to have it, because they want people from our community to go to Liverpool and use theirs. There was spare capacity, but he felt that for people, you know, locally, just need to come to their local hospital where they felt better. And he said, “would you help?” And we fundraised anyway for it. And when they were replacing it, they wrote to us, and asked us what we would like to do with this piece of equipment. <Laugh>, the League of Friends. Anyway, there’s been lots, and lots of things like that.  When Aintree opened, its Accident, and Emergency, it was the largest in Europe, and Princess Anne came to open it, and they put me by a piece of equipment that we’d fundraised for. And Princess Anne came, and stood, and spoke to me for ages, and ages, and ages. Lovely. It was very, very nice. Beautiful, lovely lady. Tiny like a little doll, but so, so genuine,  and so interested in what you’d done. And I wanted to say how wonderful she was, which she was. She gives so much, she’s out every day practically, isn’t she wonderful? Absolutely amazing. So that was another big experience for the League of Friends.

Interviewer

Lots of happy memories.

Tina

I’ve met a lot of Royal people and so yes, it’s been wonderful. But you don’t need those things to get a heck of a lot out of volunteering. You don’t. That’s the one thing I’d really like you to be able to do, is to get over to people, and particularly young people, what you get from volunteering.

Interviewer

Thank you. Thank you ever so much. It’s been great. Thank you.