Best of Us
By Rosie Brocklehurst
I wanted to let local people know about the extremely positive experiences I have had with members of the RMT, ASLEF and RCN nurses. I am a chronically ill and disabled woman. I have severe arthritis, several other conditions and am awaiting knee replacement. I am 73 and use a wheelchair.
In February last year I was placed on a new NHS treatment trial to address what had hitherto been an incurable urological condition. I could not be accepted on to it without the ability to self-catheterise using liquid gentamicin. Disaster struck: I failed to do it, and the doctors said it looked like this was not going to be possible for me. But a local nurse, Antonia Berelson, heard about me from a mutual Hastings friend and offered to come and train me for nothing, after 12 hour shifts, for five days in a row.
Thanks to her efforts, I got the hang of it despite my physical disability, and was accepted onto the trial. Almost a year later, on 12 January, I embarked on a 95 minute off peak journey from St Leonards Warrior Square to London’s Guys Hospital, feeling very apprehensive about a further uncomfortable urological procedure scheduled for 12 noon. I travelled in my wheelchair, with my retired teacher husband Paul.
We were helped into the disabled carriage by a charming guard called Ray, only to discover that the lifts serving my destination platform were out of use. Escalators and stairs at London Bridge are incredibly steep and there was no way I could navigate or walk. I would have missed my urology operation if I had had to go into Charing Cross and come back out again. However another guard, RMT member George, rapidly arranged with staff at London Bridge and the train driver to divert the train in that incredibly busy station, to a different platform with a functioning lift, so I could get to hospital on time.
I was so amazed and pleased I chatted with George further. I asked him what he did to earn money, as he gets no money at all on strike days. He told me he plays the bagpipes and has occasionally been known to do a gig or two. George plays so well in fact, that despite not being a Scot, he was invited to welcome Prince Charles (before he became King) into Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. I asked how that went down with the Scots. “Fine until I opened my mouth to speak,” said George.
This catalogue of human kindnesses was completed by superlative hospital staff in a very busy Urology Department at Guys. So, a day of anxiety was soothed by nurses, doctors and railway staff. I was therefore so overwhelmed with admiration to see my friend and helper, RCN nurse Antonia Berelson being interviewed this week on Sky News, the BBC, Talk TV and Meridien arguing the nurses’ case.
Unions are simply groups of working people trying to maintain a decent life for their families. As I have experienced: the public sector teachers, nurses, doctors, train drivers, fire brigade and ambulance service and so on, will often rise above deep and justified grievances to reveal immense generosity of spirit. They are the best of us.
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