A primary school teacher and musician with bipolar, who is in hospital receiving treatment for his condition, has thanked a local Indian restaurant for its lovely gesture to patients over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Chris Stoodley said the restaurant packed in extra food, after patients could only scrabble together £20 for an order, which was then delivered personally to the door of the psychiatric unit at Llandough Hospital by manager Azad Ali.
“I’m on the assessment ward in Llandough Hospital. We ordered a curry on Saturday evening but only had £20 cash,” Chris explained. “We ordered from The Clay Pit in Penarth and explained that there were eight of us and would he be able to put in some extra food as we all wanted a good feed. I spoke with the manager Azad who said he’d see what he could do." You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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He added: “The amount of food they sent up was huge and fed all patients. Some patients are suicidal and some in for other reasons but all came together to eat this beautiful food that must have been worth around £50 easily. I did ring him to thank him. We were all so grateful for this gesture. Beautiful food by beautiful people and I was on the phone to him for 10 minutes on a busy bank holiday Saturday night.”
Azad said he was happy to help and wanted to deliver the food personally when he heard who it was for.
“I am happy I helped them out and our food made them all feel better. They had a small budget and we gave them what we thought would be enough. There has been a lot of people talking about mental health and were happy to help.”
Chris said the “delicious food” gave a boost to him and the other patients at a very difficult time. “Azad was such a gentleman and really cared about us. I also said I would put his menus around the hospital as many of the takeaways don’t deliver to the hospital. It’s a sunny bank holiday and we are stuck here. It’s hard going. The meal helped so much.”
Read next:
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- This is what it's like to have bipolar disorder and manic depression
- Millions of men admit they are not okay - and rate mental health just six out of ten
