NHS volunteer, 95, has no intention of stopping
BBCA 95-year-old who has volunteered at her local hospital for more than a third of her life has said she has no intention of giving up.
Betty Miller took early retirement in 1990 and knew she wanted to stay active and make a contribution to society, so contacted the volunteering team at Coventry's former Walsgrave Hospital.
"I thought 'I'll go down to the hospital and I'll see what I can do', and immediately they put me behind a reception desk so that I could talk to people," she said.
When the old hospital was replaced in 2006 by the new University Hospital, Betty stayed.
What Betty enjoys most is meeting people.
"The ones that come in and say 'I haven't brought my letter and I don't know where I'm going'. You smile and you get them where they want to go."
With hundreds of people a day visiting the 1,000-bed hospital, which serves as one of four major trauma units for the Midlands, she says her role is to make people as comfortable as possible, at what can be a difficult and confusing time.
"People are always nervous" she said, "in which case a welcome in, putting them at their ease makes them less anxious."
After her decades of volunteering, Betty still thinks the NHS is wonderful, but thinks some people abuse it.
"I know that they're appealing at the moment for people not to go to A&E if it's not needed, but I see them come in and when I tell them where it is, they say 'oh I can't walk up those stairs, I want someone to take me'."
Despite getting frustrated at times, Betty said she was full of admiration for the staff, who she said put up with an "awful lot of things" in the NHS.
And despite volunteering since retirement for nearly as long as some people work, Betty has no plans to stop.
"I'm 95 years old and don't want to give up yet. I can remember everything in the hospital (so) if someone comes in, I can always say to them x-ray third on your right!"
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