CLAUDIA LENDS A HAND
Inspired by Mail’s hospital campaign, Strictly host volunteers on NHS ward
IT’S a far cry from the sequins and sparkle of the Strictly studio.
But Claudia Winkleman had no qualms about rolling her sleeves up and getting stuck in when she spent the afternoon helping out at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
The BBC presenter wanted to give a few hours of her spare time to the NHS after reading about the Daily Mail’s Christmas campaign to recruit more volunteers. Inspired by the pledges of thousands of readers, she fetched coffees, pushed patients in wheelchairs, made beds, scrubbed a mattress and even checked heart rates during her three-hour stint on the wards at the hospital in west London.
‘There aren’t many things that absolutely spring out at me but the Helpforce campaign with the Daily Mail seems like the most brilliant idea in the whole world,’ she said. ‘Who wouldn’t want a visit when you’re in hospital? As soon as I arrived at the Chelsea and Westminster they said “can you pass some tea round?”, so straight away you’re in there with drinks, talking to patients, then you’re making beds, then you’re offering lunch or supper.’
The Mail and charity Helpforce are asking readers to pledge three hours a week or one day a month to their local NHS for six months.
The campaign has received backing from Theresa May and a host of celebrities including JK Rowling, fellow author William Boyd, and Sir Cliff Richard.
So far, 22,742 kind-hearted readers have signed up since the recruitment drive was launched two weeks ago, pledging a combined total of 1,293,588 hours over six months. Some 13,191 people have promised to give three hours a week, while 9,551 have pledged one day a month.
They will carry out vital hospital roles such as mentoring patients, collecting prescriptions, providing friendship and even transporting blood.
Prospective volunteers can register their interest by filling out a simple form online.
They will be matched with an NHS Trust with placements likely to run from the spring. Applications are open until the end of the month.
Miss Winkleman wanted to do more than just offer her support, and asked if she could lend a hand to staff and patients at Chelsea and Westminster days ahead of tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing final.
She chatted to patients and met fans on St Mary Abbots Ward, a surgical assessment unit that specialises in gastroenterology and colorectal surgery. One patient, Imogen, 22, was thrilled when the star recorded a video message on her phone for her best friend Jess.
She said: ‘Jess is a huge fan of Strictly, she never misses it, so she’ll be amazed when she gets that message from Claudia.’ She also joined healthcare assistant Dan on his rounds as he took another patient’s blood pressure.
Dimpy, 30, said: ‘You can tell by how fast my heart is beating how excited I am. You make me smile just by being here.’
Miss Winkleman, whose daughter Matilda needed burns treatment after her Halloween costume caught fire in 2014, heaped praise on the NHS. ‘I believe in the NHS more than I believe in anything,’ she said.
‘It has helped me, helped my family, helped so many friends of ours and I don’t want us to take it for granted. The people employed by the NHS work incredibly hard. The nurses I’ve seen working around me today put in long shifts and they never stop. They’re superheroes and I don’t use that term lightly. They show enormous kindness and sensitivity and are beacons of light in our darkest times.
‘I’m grateful to the NHS every single day, I’m happy to volunteer myself and wholeheartedly support hospital helpforce.’ The role of volunteering will be a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan, due out later this month.
There are obvious benefits to staff and patients, but Miss Winkleman said she also came away with a sense of well-being.
She said spending time with patients when they were being assessed, treated or recovering from an operation felt truly worthwhile. ‘When it came to doing work on the ward, I don’t think I was too much of a let-down with the cleaning and bed-making,’ Miss Winkleman said. ‘But it was the conversations I had with the patients that I really enjoyed and which I hope the patients enjoyed too.
‘I felt I connected with lots of them just through chatting and getting to know them in a very short space of time. Anyone can do the same, and brighten up somebody’s day, by signing up for the volunteer scheme.
‘It’s a privilege to help and support this brilliant campaign.
‘Any help we can give the NHS would be great, anything we can do to lighten their load by volunteering would be fantastic. I just want them to feel appreciated.’
22,742 have volunteered...join them at hospitalhelpforce.com