Bridport Medical Centre
Volunteers
Lorraine Colledge - Volunteer Co-ordinator
“In those early weeks of 2021, the vaccination clinics grew rapidly. I’d taken on organising the rotas, and I spent days each week sitting on the floor in my flat, surrounded by lists of names and snippets of information. Dozens and dozens of locals from Bridport and Lyme Regis and the villages had stepped forward. The variations seemed endless. Some volunteers were free this Wednesday but not Saturday; some were good with traffic but not people or vice versa; some were married and preferred to volunteer together. I had everyone’s number in my phone and would organise it all through copious texts. Continuously checking and cross- checking my draft rotas – always worried about mistakes and not sending enough people to the right places on the right dates.
An electronic database was developed in March, and I said goodbye to sitting on the floor surrounded by lists. Now I lived half the week on my sofa with a laptop. There were up to 170 volunteers now signed up, and most were eager to do shifts. Suddenly making sure that everyone got an opportunity and wasn’t excluded became a pressure. It was so important to maintain and capitalise on the goodwill of the volunteers. Thankfully, even if a clinic was cancelled at short notice (Sorry, vaccine didn’t arrive) or if it turned into a shorter morning (Sorry, shortage of vaccinators – the staff are exhausted) the volunteers stayed willing and positive. Texts, calls, WhatsAp messages and emails bounced around continuously.
The size of the clinics continued to grow, and soon we were up to 1000 patients over the course of a long morning clinic. If a ‘bumper’ amount of vaccine was suddenly promised, then it would be a ‘Super Saturday’ with up to 2300 jabs with 75 volunteers to help it happen. It was as though I had a new job in logistics. The night before a clinic, I slept with my phone within reach as last minute calls sometimes came in to say a volunteer was ill and needed to be replaced.
It was a unique, adrenaline-fuelled time. Hopefully not an experience to be repeated, but certainly not one to be forgotten.”
Photo - 12th January 2023
Annemarie Bishop-Spangenberg - Volunteer
During the clinics I had heard of, but never met, one volunteer who regularly turned up with trays of fresh eggs to hand out to the teams. That volunteer was Annemarie Bishop-Spangenberg. Back in January this year I went to meet her and heard the story behind the eggs…
Annemarie’s father was stationed in Java with the Dutch Navy when WW2 broke out. He left to join the war effort and, following the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Annemarie ended up in an internment camp. Her enduring memory was of continual hunger. When, aged 6, she finally left the camp, her first meal was 2 fried eggs…. Chickens have clearly had a big place in her heart ever since, and she now has around 20 at home in Melplash.
When the war ended, her father was deployed to Australia where the family joined him and then eventually moved back to the Netherlands, living in various places including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Den Helder, a naval port in the North of the Netherlands. During this time Annemarie trained as a midwife – a job that she loved. When she later moved to the UK, to allow her to transfer her midwifery, she went through general nurse training in Barnet Hospital. This led to a spell working as a district nurse in the rural outskirts of NW London where she has fond memories of fascinating visits to a variety of homes, farms, and Gypsy camps.
23 years ago Annemarie and her husband moved to Dorset, setting up their house as a care home to enable her ageing parents to move in with her, rather than into a home in Holland. With three other residents in addition to her parents they kept very busy, and the ever-present chickens played a part in daily life too. She told me how one resident who was blind, would sit for hours happily stroking the chickens.
Keeping active and in good company is clearly a big part of Annemarie’s life. In recent years she has run fitness and aqua-aerobics classes in Melplash and Beaminster including the wonderfully named, and very civilised sounding “Fit for tea” sessions – fitness classes followed by… a cup of tea. As a regular fundraiser for charities including the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and Age UK, and regularly volunteering her time elsewhere, she was very at home when she joined the large band of local people who made up the volunteer teams for the vaccination clinics at Bridport Medical Centre and in Beaminster.
As she explains below, the periods of lockdown weren’t easy, but she seemed hugely grateful for the space that her life here allowed, and for the companionship that so many people felt as part of those clinic volunteer teams.
From Annemarie:
“When I heard first about the Covid lockdown, I was in Beaminster Public Hall with 80 elderly people, who just enjoyed a dinner, interesting talk and each other’s company. My mind was racing and silently panicking. For 11 years, I have been the chairman for Beaminster Area Seniors. With assistance of my committee, Age UK and various organizations. Our aim having been to mainly assist people with company, lunches, speakers, outings and mobility.
All future plans and bookings had to be canceled, house arrest for many, all the things which helped so many lonely, elderly people. Not knowing how long for….! During lockdown my thoughts have been for the many people, stuck alone or with family incl .children in flats and apartments. No schools, clubs etc. I felt so fortunate, living in a village with a large garden and my dogs, chickens and ducks to keep me busy. I also volunteered at the Covid clinics, meeting people. So I was never lonely, depressed or bored.”