After being involved with Neighbourcare from its inception, thirty years ago, it was announced that Madeleine Jenkins has recently handed over the Neighbourcare ‘baton’ to others and was stepping down from the committee. As background, Neighbourcare helps people from both East Woodhay and Highclere parishes, to attend medical appointments and is growing each year as demand increases. Last year 477 journeys were undertaken for those in need and the indication is that the number will continue to increase.
Today there is a website, fully defined roles aligned with policies and procedures. A computer system keeps a log of the requests and the journeys taken plus there is a computer app where drivers indicate which journeys they can do. I knew this would be a long way from the beginnings which Madeleine would have seen all those many years ago and therefore I wanted to have a chat with her to find out more. This is the outcome from that conversation.
It all started when Madeleine was a Health Visitor in Thatcham. One day she had a phone call from Dorothy Barber, a fellow health visitor in Woolton Hill, and Dorothy had an idea to set up a group in the area to help people in need. Dorothy knew of a Neighbourcare group in Kingsclere and so a lunch was held in The Swan pub in Kingsclere where the two invited a member of that Neighbourcare scheme to explain what they did.
Being health visitors, they already knew there was a local need and the initial idea was for Neighbourcare to cover a range of support activities, including: visits to doctors, gardening, dog walking, changing light bulbs etc.
As Dorothy lived in Kintbury, Madeleine was the one who was in the area and she was asked to take the lead. Having publicised the idea in Spectrum and via people she knew, including Dr West and Rev David Carter, an inaugural meeting was held in St Thomas Church Hall.
From this first meeting about six people volunteered and a committee was formed of Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Advertiser. Madeleine was asked to be founding Chair of the group.
Posters were made, leaflets were dropped into homes and the surgery was involved to start awareness. A telephone number was designated for clients to call. It was all very informal but, with initial volumes being small, it worked.
However, as demand increased it became difficult to have enough volunteers to support all the activities. Consequently, the focus needed to be trimmed to the two priorities: driving to medical appointments and a ‘befriending service’ for lonely people. Over time as there became more and more need for driving, Madeleine and the committee made the difficult decision to channel down Neighbourcare to just transport.
When Madeleine changed work from being a health visitor to a full time Macmillan nurse, the extra work meant Madeleine needed to step down as Chair of Neighbourcare and Jean Bartholomew then took over. As a Macmillan nurse, Madeleine was involved with Newbury & District Cancer Care Trust and, for people with cancer, they too had a service to help people go to hospital. Importantly, they had a constitution and more formal processes. Therefore, about four years after it started and, borrowing ideas from the Cancer Care Trust, East Woodhay and Highclere Neighbourcare begun to have more structure in the way it operated.
Over the years Madeleine has taken on several roles within Neighbourcare and, for a period, went back to being temporary Chair. Then about twenty years ago Madeleine introduced the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check for all drivers and she has continued to lead this as it morphed into DBS (the government Disclosure and Barring Service) until recently stepping down from Neighbourcare.
However, it is a lot more than simply the formal aspects which have defined Madeleine’s importance to our local Neighbourcare. She has always been the ‘go to’ person for advice and with all the changes which have been implemented over the years it has always been Madeleine who has ensured that the committee keep the clients and drivers at the very centre of every change made.
A large number of the community benefit from the work of our local Neighbourcare team and we have a debt of gratitude to Madeleine and that original phone call from Dorothy Barber for setting the seeds in place thirty years ago.
If you are interested in volunteering and joining the team, giving as much or as little of your time as suits, then please call the Secretary, Keith Nunn (01635 253888) or look at the website (ewhneighbourcare.org.uk).
