January 2025 - The Friends Shop Trolley Team Manager Honoured
On 31st December 2024, in response to the announcement of Honor Cousens Award of a BEM, Andrew Greasley, Head of Communications St Bartholomew’s Hospital posted; ‘Honour for Honor, the hospital trolley hero’. Honor is the Volunteer Manager, Shop Trolley Team, at the Royal London Hospital.
https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/news-from-rlh/honour-for-honor-the-hospital-trolleyhero-17215
Honor responded; ‘Guiding the Friends of the Royal London Hospital trolley shop and chatting to patients is such a privilege. The patients are so uplifting with their bravery. I keep hearing it is what it is. I am surrounded by so many inspirational people with stories to share generosity and warmth and humour. To receive a BEM for something I love doing is an enormous shock and very humbling.’
Besides running the Trolley Service, Honor was a Trustee of the Friends and a Member of the Friends Committee from October 2013 to February 2020. On the 12th October 2023 she received a Long Service Award and now she is the first trolley volunteer to be recognised for her dedication with a national honour. On the Friends website Honor (71): says ‘Loading and pushing the trolley around the wards for three or four hours might seem easy, but by the time I have offloaded the cold drinks back into the fridges and re-stocked the trolley, cashed up and headed off home to give Hooligan his third walk of the day, I am about ready for half an hour’s sit-down to recuperate!’
Clearly, Honor is passionate about the Friends’ trolley service but as you can see below she has other passions too.
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The contribution of the trolley volunteers (now informally referred to as Trolley Vollies) to the welfare and morale of those in hospital is remarkable. These amazing people are rooted in the community of East London. They know its strengths and its weaknesses and so they are uniquely equipped to hearten patients. The ‘vollies’ take their trollies laden with useful items and treats, which they sell at modest prices, to the patients’ bedside. With increasingly busy staff & so many patients located in single wards they provide an informal link between patients and staff. Often, they simply offer comfort to anxious and lonely people by their conversation.
Since the inauguration of the National Health Service in 1948 great advances have occurred in medicine and surgery but the less dramatic aspects of care, those concerned with the patients’ environment, comfort and personal welfare were not prioritised. The Friends Charity was set up in 1979 to help dispense those things which the NHS did not, and still does not provide. For example, in-patients had no hospital shop (and they still do not) so one early need was for a ward trolley service which began soon after the Friends were formed. The photograph below shows the Friends Volunteers with their trolley on the wards forty years ago, sometime in the 1980s.
Twenty years ago Jasmin Begum, who had already organised the Trolley Service and recruited volunteers for more than 5 years, reported there were 4/5 trolley sessions per week. She said ‘our volunteers; students, people who are unemployed or those who are retired, are very good at bringing cheer to the wards are and having a chat with patients as well as selling goods’.
Ten years ago the photograph above of the Trolley Service Volunteers (TSA) and Committee Members was included in the Annual Newsletter with a detailed account of ‘A Day in the Life of a Trolley Dolly’ (now renamed ‘Trolley Volley’) by Carol Bassi. Carol had been doing the trolley round with Honor, for about 18 months. The other
Trolley Volunteers were Steve Harris, Christine Winterflood and Ruth Davis. Stan Padmore joined later, after the London Chest Hospital closed where he had already been a volunteer for 13 years. Subsequently, Frida Harrington, Lee Chaffe, Kanthi Gunalan & Sudhir Shah also joined. More names are listed in the Trolley Ledger.
In 2016 the Friends Newsletter contained a quote from a patient called Martin who was in Ward 12C. ‘I’m Martin, I’m 58 years old and for 30 of them I have been a member of Hells Angels. This is my 4th stay on the ward. I’ve often bought sweets and drinks from the trolley and left it at that. That is until I met Honor. I suppose our common link was that we both enjoyed hooliganism (Hooligan is the name of her dog) and we were both mad enough to chat with anyone...... I (now) know they are pushing a lot more than sweets and drinks’.
Since then, apart from a break of over two years due to the Covid Pandemic Restrictions, the trolley service has continued & flourished and Honor has been meticulous in organising the team and replenishing the store so that a full complement of items is always available.
The Friends website displays comments about the recent experiences of Honor, Rachel Baylis, Chibuike Smith, Deborah Petrich, Christopher Cousins, Molly Morrell and Richard Gardner, at; https://www.friendsoftheroyallondonhospital.org.uk/TrolleyServices/. They are enlightening. Molly (81) says ‘In my experience you get more out of volunteering than you possibly give’.
Over the 10 year since I was elected President of the Friends, my observation of the trolley volunteers is that they have all been assiduous in ensuring the trolley service does not fail. They are a modest, kindly and readily approachable team who are available to help but do not intrude. In consequence the feedback from both patients and staff to their presence, is universally enthusiastic.
The Friends of the Royal London Hospital and the Barts Health NHS Trust are delighted to know that Honor has been recognised with a BEM for managing the trolley service but they also know that they are immensely privileged to have such a wonderful team of remarkable volunteers to support her.
Prof. Trevor Beedham. President. Friends of the Royal London Hospital.