Meet the NHS’ oldest23 volunteer... aged 100
Beryl plans to keep serving cuppas at hospital cafe she sees as ‘family’
BERYL Carr watches an elderly lady walking unsteadily down the hospital corridor, sporting a patch across one eye. She makes to rise to her feet when the lady stumbles, but a crisis is averted.
“That was me just a fortnight ago,” she nods, over tea in a Tigger mug.
Beryl has only just recovered from a cataract operation, but here she is, volunteering at the Friends’ Cafe in Ealing Hospital, West London, as she does for four hours every week.
At the age of 100, and far older than the woman she almost sprang up to help, she is also the NHS’s oldest volunteer.
This is Volunteers’ Week, a chance to say thank you to those who contribute their time, and Beryl has been awarded a Points of Light award by Downing Street.
Beryl gets tired, she concedes, but will keep volunteering for as long as she is able. This is, after all, a lady who survived a wardrobe landing on top of her during the Blitz.
“I will come and help at the cafe for as long as they will have me,” she says. “The cafe is like a family. It’s important to me to work.”
Beryl, who celebrated her centenary in January, started volunteering at the cafe 18 years ago, after her husband of 60 years, Bill, passed away.
“It is nice to give something back to the NHS. The
NHS is a special thing,” she says. “I remember when my brother burnt his hand on the stove and we had to pay for a doctor, before the NHS.
“I think it was hard for my parents to find the money.
“It may be struggling, but the doctors and nurses always seem to be coping,” she adds. “This is my way of doing my bit, I’m putting something in.”
This is my way of putting something back in to the NHS
Born in 1922 in Acton, West London, Beryl was bright, but left school at 15 because she needed to support her dad, who worked in the building trade, and her housewife mum. She got an office job, but then war broke out.
Beryl sewed barrage balloons as two brothers joined the Navy.
“Eric, my eldest brother, was killed at Dunkirk. He was 19,” she says, more slowly. “We received a telegram saying he was missing, presumed killed.”
She remembers the night they lost their home in the Blitz.
“We had been in the Anderson shelter in the garden but came in to bed,” she recalls. “We hadn’t been in bed long when you could hear them coming over, then the planes stopped and it was a loud bang, it came through the roof, the wardrobe fell on top of me. I couldn’t breathe because of the debris and dust.” Miraculously, the whole family escaped, but homeless, were placed in a two-bedroom flat. She met Bill, an engineer, at a dance, and they married in 1942 when she was 20, but their wedding venue was also bombed. Daughter Valerie arrived in 1949, and they moved to Cambridgeshire for Bill’s work, while Beryl returned to office work for the civil service. When Bill died she moved back to Ealing, but was lonely. That is when her volunteering career began. She is immensely proud of the birthday card she received from the Queen, and they share striking similarities, both still living a life of service. “She is wonderful,” says Beryl.
But there is also no doubting what she gives back. In the cafe, regulars, doctors and nurses say hello often.
“It means a lot, someone who supports us at this age,” explains Dr Elizabeth Tarczynska, an oral surgeon. “She inspires me.”
The cafe, run by Ann Cousins, means a lot too. “We missed it during the pandemic,” she adds.
Dr Naheed Rana becomes emotional when she joins us. She explains she would come to the cafe with her late mother, Shanaz, when her mum was having treatment. She recalls: “Beryl was always smiling, welcoming.”
A stranger, who has had hip surgery, tell us she is tired.
“This getting old lark is not funny,” Beryl consoles, who had a hip replacement herself in 2003.
Beryl admits she “got low” during the pandemic. Being able to work again is how she picks herself up.
“You see people going past in a stretcher and think how lucky you are,” she explains.
BERYL CARR ON WHY SHE VOLUNTEERS AT HOSPITAL