Volunteer tells of wiping soot off children
A RETIRED nurse today told how he cleaned soot from the hands of child victims of the Grenfell Tower fire as they lay in intensive care.
William Kwan, 70, was one of the King’s College Hospital volunteers who helped provide care for the injured. King’s received 12 patients following last week’s disaster, half of whom required critical care.
Mr Kwan, from Brixton Hill, has been a King’s volunteer for a year. The former intensive care nurse said: “I was asked to help on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. When I went there, I saw children from the fire covered in soot — it was all over their hands.
“Two of us from the Volunteers’ Service went to the unit and carefully cleaned the hands of four children. We also spoke to their relatives who were visiting at the time. We wanted them to know how much we care.”
Another volunteer, former King’s patient Angela Ingman, 69, from East Dulwich, helped to reunite patients with their families the day after the fire. “There was an area set up in the hospital for families and friends looking for their loved ones,” she said. “I helped serve tea and coffee to people who were waiting there for informa- VICTIMS of the Grenfell Tower fire will have payments for burnt furniture cancelled after outrage that they were still being charged. Sofa retailer DFS and Barclays, which gives loans for customers to pay for furniture, have cancelled bills they had intended to collect from those who lost their homes in last week’s blaze.
tion. They were still shell-shocked from what had happened.
“There was a group of doctors, nurses, chaplains, paediatricians and psychologists in the room with me. We all worked together to take the names of people who had arrived and managed to reunite people.”
For details of how to volunteer at K i n g ’s : k c h . n h s .u k /a b o u t /g e t - involved/volunteering