The Repair Shop helps mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS by restoring cherished mementoes of staff and patients, including author Michael Rosen.
Ex-Children’s Laureate Michael, 77, who was struck down with Covid in March 2020, brings in a diary kept by his diligent doctors and nurses as he lay in a coma.
On the intensive care ward where he spent 48 days battling the virus, they recorded how they cared for him on a daily basis.
Accompanied by his daughter Elsie, he tells the experts as they attempt to preserve the diary: “Each day they wrote an entry. That’s the bit that gets me upset, thinking about them looking after me, and saying, ‘Today I held your hand’.
“And they’d sing to me and tell me things every day, things like that. These people saved my life, many times.”
Viewers can also see tonight the treasured possessions of three other families whose lives have been transformed by the NHS ahead of the anniversary on July 5.
DESK
Bill McDonald, 60, first spotted the dusty desk as a student nurse when his lecturer told him there was furniture about to be skipped as the Gartloch Hospital’s school of nursing in Glasgow was closing down.
The year was 1987 and Bill had just married wife Kate, and was studying to become a specialist mental health nurse.
“It was a beautiful desk, just sitting in the corner of this room,” he remembers.
“I nicked it off my lecturer as he had his eye on it. As newlyweds we didn’t have much nice furniture but I brought it home and it’s been with us ever since.”
The desk was scuffed, stained and faded from sun damage by the time it got into Repair Shop expert Will Kirk’s hands.
As well as using it for his nursing studies, Bill and Kate, both 60, let their kids to do their homework and colouring on the 1940s desk, and it needed a specialist to restore it to its prime.
Will set about stripping back the old synthetic varnish and applying wax to the drawers that had become sticky.
After a layer of special wood stain and some TLC, the desk was as good as new again. When Bill and Kate saw the restored desk, they couldn’t believe the transformation. “It’s back with us and it’s being treated like royalty,” laughs Kate.
“We’re keeping it out of direct sunlight and nobody’s allowed to put anything on it that might scratch it.
“We want to pass it on to our daughter Fiona, who’s an occupational therapist. It’s a nice legacy for her.”
In an emotional moment from the episode Bill slips his nursing badge into the drawer for Fiona to treasure – and Kate had no idea he was planning to do it.
“This is like us handing on the baton to Fiona as she flourishes in her NHS career,” Bill says.
Kate, a former co-ordinator for stroke services, adds: “What an honour to work so hard to make things right for people when they’re at their most vulnerable.
“Having been on the other end of the health service a couple of times throughout our lives, we know how important it is to make sure people get the right service at the right time, and to make sure they’re treated respectfully.”
CATERING TROLLEY
Children staying on the paediatric ward had been warned to stay clear of the old, broken Thomas the Tank Engine catering trolley that served their meals.
His door had broken and he was looking the worse for wear, having been doing his rounds at Frimley Park Hospital in Farnborough, Surrey, since the early 1990s when staff nurse Catherine Reed first started working there.
She and ward manager Katie Wilson had tried in vain to get some quotes to repair the old trolley, but it was too expensive.
Katie says: “A lot needed doing. It was quite scratched. There were some sharp handles, which meant the children couldn’t really go near it. It was a real shame. It was in such a state that the hospital had started talking about retiring him and getting a new trolley. That’s when we looked at doing something with The Repair Shop.”
Catherine and Katie made the trip to meet Jay Blades and the rest of the experts at the cabin.
Metal restorer Dominic Chinea assessed the damage and set about giving Thomas a brand new face, working doors and drawers that could give the trolley a new lease of life and deliver him back to the ward.
Catherine, who retired on the same day the restored trolley came back to the ward, says: “For anyone, going into hospital is a stressful time, but especially for a young child who’s in pain and doesn’t know what’s going on.
“For them to see Thomas the Tank, it just lets them forget what’s going on, helps them forget the pain. It’s something normal at an abnormal time.”
One mother, whose son Lewis died several years ago, has a picture of him with Thomas in the trolley’s heyday, and has been in touch with the nurses to say how seeing him on The Repair Shop will bring back joyful memories of her boy, who loved Thomas.
Having Thomas back on the ward as good as new has been a pleasure, says Katie. Her young patients’ faces light up when they see him being wheeled into their rooms with their meals.
She says: “In comparison to a toddler, he’s like the size of a real train. They think he’s amazing. He really cheers them up. And it’s something else to focus on three times a day when they can forget being sick and just be happy children again.”
DOCTORS BAG
Doctor Noel Hayter used his leather bag for decades after coming to England in 1960.
Raised in Burma, he entered medical school at 16 and found work as a GP in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
His son, Dr Adrian Hayter, took the bag to Repair Shop after his father died last year aged 85.
He says his father took good care of the bag and the instruments inside as he had to be prepared.
“As a child growing up, I remember him packing things away inside this bag and keeping all his tools, his equipment, ready for use,” he recalls.
“His bag was always with him day and night, because he was always on call.”
Noel was once helping a mother give birth in her home when she nearly bled out but managed to save her life thanks to his trusty bag of equipment.
“He came home and plumped his bag down, and everything had been used,” says Adrian. “It was in a state. But there was no time for him to relax because he had to restock it.
"Being in that situation alone with the patient must have been really scary, but Dad was my hero. He just got on with sterilising his equipment and preparing it for the next time it was needed.”
When Noel retired, he passed the bag on to Adrian, who had followed him into medicine.
“That was really special,” he says. “For me, it was about affirmation from my dad, that I was following in his footsteps. He was so proud of the NHS and all the work that he did, so when he gave me the bag, he was passing on all that he had done in his career.”
Adrian’s daughter Alice is now a qualified dentist, and her sister Lydia is also training to be one.
He adds: “We’re hoping that working in the NHS is going to be a continued part of our family’s story. It’s about flying the flag for the NHS and making that difference. That’s what Dad believed too.”
