I’m a survivor and proud to volunteer
I WELCOME the Daily Mail’s campaign to encourage readers to become hospital volunteers. I had a stroke five years ago and was rushed to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital with a paralysed right side and loss of speech. When I recovered, I wanted to give something back for the wonderful care I had received, so I now volunteer to talk to stroke patients. I wear a distinctive purple shirt, so I am easily spotted on the ward. On one of my first visits, I stopped at the bed of an elderly gent called Mark. His wife was talking to him quietly. ‘Please answer me, darling,’ she said. ‘Please talk to me.’ He remained silent. She told me he hadn’t spoken since his stroke four weeks previously. I communicated with hand signals, drawing pictures, smiles and laughter. I said goodbye and wished Mark well. As I started to walk away, I heard a very quiet, weak voice say: ‘Goodbye, Michael.’ We were all in tears. George was left with mental problems by his stroke and after he was discharged, his wife was finding it difficult to cope with him. I persuaded him to seek professional help and visited him often. A year later, he took part in a fundraising walk. One day on the ward, I was chatting to a patient when I mentioned that I, too, had suffered a stroke. He stared at me in surprise, grabbed my hands and put them over his face as he sobbed his heart out. ‘Thank you so much — you have given me hope,’ he said. He turned to his wife and said: ‘Did you hear what Michael said? I am going to get better. We’ll get better together.’ That morning he walked a few steps for the first time in three months with the help of a nurse and a walking frame. John had been in a nursing home for the two years since his stroke because his wife could not look after him at home. He was paralysed on his left-hand side and used a wheelchair. Despite his problems, John was cheerful and told me there were people far worse than him. We had the same sense of humour and clicked immediately. His wife said we reminded her of the Two Ronnies. I suggested that he set a target and after a lot of thought, he said he wanted to be back in his own home by Christmas. Within two weeks, he had stood up for the first time in two years and managed to walk ten steps with the help of a handrail. One of my most moving experiences was the day I stopped at a bed where a curled-up figure lay completely covered by a sheet. Hanna was just 18 and had suffered a stroke five days before. Her parents told me she’d given up and was convinced she didn’t have a future. I sat beside her bed and gently eased away the sheet from over her head. I’ve never seen such a young face so full of despair. I told her I’d been in a similar way, and with determination and a lot of help I had regained my life and she could, too. I said there’s always hope and she should never give up. As I got up to leave, she gently squeezed my hand. Months later, at a Stroke Survivors meeting, a new member walked in: a vibrant young lady full of the joys of life. She said she’d been at her lowest point when a volunteer in a purple shirt had spent time talking to her and she’d managed to squeeze his hand. It’s moments like that which make me so happy I’m a hospital volunteer. MICHAEL SCHOFIELD,
Christchurch, Dorset.