‘Keep moving’ advises NHS’s oldest volunteer
A pensioner who volunteers at Ealing Hospital has turned 100, making her the NHS’s oldest volunteer.
Beryl Carr celebrated her birthday on January 14 and still volunteers at the Friends’ Cafe inside Ealing hospital where she works as a cashier.
Born in Acton in 1922, Beryl grew up with her two brothers and sister in Ealing, before moving to Cambridgeshire with her husband. She moved back to Ealing 30 years later to be close to her daughter Val after the death of her husband, joining the cafe in 2003.
“I moved back to Ealing and I was alone,” Beryl said. “I didn’t know anyone and my daughter said I should try volunteering.
“I came for the interview, said I’d do whatever they needed, and I’ve been here ever since. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Drawn to the cafe’s social atmosphere, Beryl said: “It’s a lovely community.”
During her time at the cafe, the grandmother-of-one has worked as a cashier, occasionally lending a hand making sandwiches and doing other necessary tasks.
When the pandemic began in March 2020, the hospital cafe shut and Beryl was forced to shield because she was clinically vulnerable.
Speaking of how difficult Beryl found it not being able to come into the cafe, she said: “I missed it terribly.”
This wasn’t the first time Beryl had faced hardship in her life, having survived the Blitz during Second World War.
“I spent my teenage years underground in an air raid shelter,” she said. “During the war I was the only one [of my siblings] still at home.
“One night it looked clear up above so we stayed in the house. There was a hit and the wardrobe fell on top of me.
“We had to move into a shelter while the bomb damage was repaired. It was pretty traumatic.”
Beryl entered the war effort, fire-watching and stitching barrage balloons that would prevent enemy planes from being able to fly too low.
Even now, it doesn’t look like Beryl will be stopping her volunteering any time soon, saying that she can’t think of anything worse than spending all day in front of the television.
“The answer is to keep moving, otherwise you just stagnate sitting in a chair. My limbs all still move fine.” A pillar of the hospital community, staff threw Beryl a party at the cafe to mark her birthday last week, baking a vanilla sponge cake and holding a charity raffle in her honour. Like every centenarian, Beryl received her much-anticipated birthday card from the Queen, which arrived on time on the big day itself. Speaking of the moment the postman handed it to her, she said: “I knew it was coming, but when it arrived it was still a surprise. It’s just lovely!” Beryl still lives independently and catches a lift to work with her daughter or colleague. Her daughter also does her shopping for her. When asked what her secret to a long life has been, Beryl said: “Everything in moderation! “But I’m also just very lucky,” she added. Looking back on the past week of celebration, Beryl acknowledges that it has been a bit of a whirlwind: “I got over 100 birthday cards and so many flowers, I haven’t had time to look at them all. “My apartment is full of them!”
I came for the interview, said I’d do whatever they needed, and I’ve been here ever since. Beryl Carr