Hospice Volunteer Jackie Tannett’s Precious Memories
When Jackie Tannett got on the bus to St Christopher’s Hospice in 1979, she had no idea where that trip would lead. The outing, led by Pam Macpherson, was to show people what a hospice was like, and Pam was eager to include Jackie in her vision for a local hospice for Berkhamsted and the surrounding area. “She approached me and a couple of other ladies, and asked if we would like to come and help with office work,” explains Jackie.
The timing was fortuitous - with her then youngest child (of two) having just started school, Jackie was looking for something to do outside the home, and her secretarial background was a great advantage. “I typed letters and fund raising documents. I remember working alternate days with Kath Matthews and Elaine Butcher. Our ‘office’ was a room in what is now the Manor Street Doctors’ surgery. There were boxes everywhere, two donated typewriters – in fact everything was donated, desks, chairs, paper, files, envelopes, biros, pencils, you name it!”
Jackie’s memories of those early days emphasise the hard work that went into getting the dream off the ground. She recalls going to the Convent in Shrublands Road (later to become our first Hospice building) and getting covered in black ink whilst producing flyers for the first ‘Snowball Coffee Mornings’. All the printing was done on a duplicating machine (the predecessor of the digital or laser printer), which was lent by the Sisters.
“I had to type a ‘skin’ which was laid on a roller within the machine and then turn a handle to print out all the flyers we needed, there were hundreds so you can imagine how long that took.” Once enough money was raised Pam was determined to find a home for the Hospice and Jackie remembers Pam showing her details of potential Berkhamsted properties.
When staff moved into Shrublands Road and the first nurses were employed, Jackie was responsible for keeping the details of patients and volunteers; she recalls her two card index boxes with all the information of names and addresses etc. typed onto index cards – one for patients and the other for volunteers.
Jackie worked two mornings a week, and continued even in the holidays. How did she manage when the children were off school? “I just took them along,” Jackie smiles, describing how they used to play in the garden of ‘Shrublands Road’ as she continued to work in the office in the holidays.
Indeed, in a photo of one of the first pop-up shops run by the Hospice, Jackie can be seen with her young daughter, who helped on the stall with her. In these early times, Jackie recalls how all the volunteers would turn their hand to anything – and she remarks how that spirit of ‘if a job needs doing, it gets done’ is still the same today.
Jackie was asked by Pam to be member of the Company, when it was first set up in the early 1980s and continues to be an Association Member today.
When she fell pregnant with her third child, in 1983, Jackie took a break from the hospice to focus on her family. She also managed to find time to take an Open University degree in psychology, and a Foundation course in counselling. This stood her in good stead when she decided it was the right time to return to the Hospice in 1994. She wanted a change of direction and found it working with other volunteers on the telephone helpline, held on Monday night, supporting patients’ relatives. Jackie also worked imputing computer data for the volunteer organiser – “a big change from my old card index system” - and minuted the Day Hospice team meetings! In time, she joined the staff and took responsibility of administrating the telephone helpline.
In 2008, Jackie decided to take a break from the Hospice as her father had died and her mother had moved to the area. During that time, Jackie, a keen golfer, was elected ladies’ captain of her golf club, but along with all of her other interests, the Hospice has always held a special place in her heart, and in 2016 she decided to return to volunteer again.
After years spent in different roles for the Hospice, Jackie felt drawn to the In-Patient Unit. On her first shift she was greeted happily by Chris, the head chef: “Jackie! Why are you here in the kitchen?” Her reply? “This is what I want to do.” She explains, “I wanted to do something different from admin or counselling this time, I wanted to be right there doing what is needed in the IPU being in touch with the patients and their families.”
Jackie insists that she is no-one special and is just doing what she can to help, but her husband is (rightly) proud – making her breakfast before waving her off for her regular early morning shift in the IPU.
When I return to volunteering [after time away], it feels like coming back to family,” Jackie says. It is this sense of family among the staff and volunteers that helps create the special atmosphere at the Hospice, with everyone committed to each patient’s precious life. As Jackie puts it, “We are like a family, caring for the patients. We share a similar ethos about how things should be done, and we all want to belong.”
Jackie’s contribution and commitment to the Hospice over the last 40 years is outstanding – yet she is quick to demur. “I am just part of the system - a fantastic system - I am not here as an individual. It is everyone giving what they can that makes the Hospice what it is. I have given my time to many causes over the years but now I wouldn’t want to volunteer anywhere else.”
When asked how she feels when she sees how far the Hospice has come since those early days, Jackie says it is amazing how much it has changed and become so much bigger, with the fundraising needs expanding every day. But she says, “Giving the patients what they want, and treating them and their families in a holistic way, not just focusing on their medical needs, is what our Hospice has always been about. Patient care is as it always has been, at the centre of everything.”
Why does Jackie keep coming back? She replies simply: “I do it for us. The whole community. And I plan to stay for as long as I am able.”
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