Volunteering matters

By Andreas Kyriacou

In 1965, I met somebody who seemed to be a lonely person. He was a Palestinian refugee of 1948, when Palestinians were driven away from their homes.

Visiting friends

He was living on his own in a large house, where nobody else was living. It was a very old and cold house. Eventually this friend became ill due to hypothermia.

He suffered frostbite. I helped him to get in hospital. However, his state of mind became very confused and eventually he was declared mentally ill and was kept at the old St John’s wing of Homerton Hospital. (Today that wing is demolished, and a new section was built up called the East Wing).

I used to go and see him very frequently and I met other people there, suffering from mental health problems.

Sometime later my friend was moved to a centre in Redbridge. I kept visiting him regularly. Because of him I met many people who were permanently living in residential homes and other set ups for people with mental health problems, or just elderly and disabled, being unable to live on their own and look after themselves.

At the last residential home he was moved to in Essex, he passed away. Since then it became a habit for me to visit people in residential homes or in their own homes.

Some of them have died. The last who died was a 98-year-old lady who was living in her flat in Stoke Newington.

Until the last days of her life, she was mentally healthy and was using her hands and brains very efficiently. She was making lace, watching telly, reading newspapers, books and magazines – mainly for new lace patterns and she was copying them very quickly.

But after a very short illness that lasted 10 days, she died in hospital. Now I see her daughter who is in her late 70s and suffering with depression because she lost her son who was in his late 30s and she never recovered since.

I see also on regular basis a lady who is confined at home together with her disabled son who is in his late 30s. As many people know about my activities, when somebody has a problem or is admitted to hospital, they refer to me – so they keep me very busy indeed!

The strength to contact lonely people

Because I worked as an interpreter for many years, some agencies still contact me to interpret for their clients.

Yesterday for example I spent half a day in hospital interpreting and giving emotional support to a patient who was undergoing an operation. I spent half an hour in the operating theatre watching the operation. It was so cold in the operating theatre,

I started having cramps in my legs – I think for my age it’s a bit too much to spend time in operating theatres.

As if that wasn’t enough, I had to go to the funeral of a friend’s wife. He was very moved to see me, and that emotion gave me strength to continue contacting lonely people.

Life being what it is, you can never tell your luck. But I am still enthusiastic to see people, I think it is very rewarding.