Vicky Walker spoke with volunteer vaccinator and outreach steward Caroline at the Downham Vaccination Hub on September 25, 2021.
TRANSCRIPT:
Vicky: Hi. This is Vicky Walker, from Lewisham Vaccination Stories. We have just finished a shift of second and first doses at the Downham Vaccination Hub, and I am here talking to my fellow volunteer vaccinator, Caroline. Hello, Caroline.
Caroline: Hi.
Vicky: So, I know that you and I are both vaccinators and we are enjoying it. What were you doing before the vaccination programme started? How was your pandemic going?
Caroline: The pandemic was in interesting one, being that I am a disabled woman and a wheelchair user. So, there was quite a lot of perception at the beginning that I should be shielded, but my condition didn’t lend itself, or I’m not clinically extremely vulnerable or vulnerable to COVID. So, there were quite a lot of misconceptions at the beginning.
I have been doing — Because I am on furlough, I have been doing quite a lot of volunteering. A local food project in Downham, which has been a fantastic team to work with all the way through. Very supportive, very inclusive, and very friendly.
I have also been doing voluntary sector at Lewisham, doing the befriending. And then, on 9th April, I joined the vaccination team as a steward.
Photo illustration of Caroline by Polly Coppa Boreham
Vicky: Yes. And I remember you coming in and being a ray of light. And gobby, the self-described gobby person that you are. So, I know I twisted your arm a bit about vaccination and actually doing the vaccinations, but why did you want to do that level of volunteering?
Caroline: Somebody said I couldn’t do it. The reason I came to Lewisham was because my own borough had a —
Vicky: Which is Greenwich.
Caroline: Greenwich. Had a — I don’t know whether you want to mention that or not. I don’t know, it might be quite difficult. Yes, there was an exclusion on the voluntary sector website that said that — Originally, it was, if you were disabled, you couldn’t volunteer. They wouldn’t let me originally volunteer with packing up the —
Vicky: That seems unnecessarily restrictive, if people want to volunteer.
Caroline: Yes. It was also with the– When people were volunteering before that, making up the food parcels, if you were–
Because I have care and support, so they were saying, if you were in receipt of social care, you should be shielded, so therefore you weren’t allowed to volunteer. And I was trying to argue all the way through that wasn’t correct.
So, I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t actually volunteer. But I have been volunteering in Lewisham before the pandemic and I have always been happy over here.
And my father had COVID, he was one of the early cases, in December, January 2020. We actually got a letter as a family – or he got a letter, as a patient – just before lockdown in March, to say the consultant had now seen wards and wards of people, like himself, and he was convinced–
Vicky: So, they hadn’t recognised it at the time, they just thought, “What is this?”
Caroline: No, a mystery illness. And actually watching someone struggle to breathe was something– Your own father. It was quite frightening. And it kind of hit home with me. I really wanted to do something that– You know, it just made me want to do the vaccination and be part of that programme, the vaccination programme.
And then I came as a steward and I was asked if I wanted to be a vaccinator. You persuaded me! Initially, I have always been very phobic of needles, because I had a bad experience when I was a child. But being around–
Vicky: Well, you have been shift leader as well.
Caroline: I’ve been a shift leader. I moved up from just signing people in, to wiping down the chairs, to shift leader, to a vaccinator now. So, it has been a very positive journey. And a journey that has been well supported and encouraged. That’s what I really like about Downham, is everyone really– It kind of saw me as what I could do, rather than what I couldn’t do.
Vicky: Which baffles me, that your borough has that idea of people with disabilities, that they should stay home and be safe, and that just seems unnecessarily– A blanket decision.
Caroline: Yes. I mean, later on, they did change the requirements and say, if you were vulnerable, if you lived with someone who was vulnerable, then you must not volunteer for the vaccine programme.
But they didn’t actually define what vulnerable was. And all the way through, disabled activists have said that using the terminology “vulnerable” has made us more vulnerable, because of this climate that we are in. So, I guess that they felt that they were trying to be protective, but actually it was very paternalistic, and I found it quite hard going.
Vicky: I’m not surprised.
Caroline: Particularly as I actually had stood for office in 2018, so I know everybody involved. I think maybe that hit me more. But I just wanted to be an ordinary individual who stepped up for their communities, more than one community. Because I have family links in Lewisham, and my ancestors grew up here, on both sides of my family as well.
Vicky: Lewisham is in your bones. (Laughter)
Caroline: Yes, Lewisham and Greenwich, but particularly Lewisham. I don’t know, the pandemic, I just felt we never thought we would see it in our lifetime, it was something you read in social history. You kind of look and wonder how people would have reacted and what they would have done. And now I know.
I know it’s a different time, modern times now, but I think following the footsteps of your ancestors, reading their stories, I think they would have stepped up as well.
Vicky: Well, certainly one of my friends said it was like the little boats going to Dunkirk, we are all going to save people one at a time. Mark said something about, “We’re doing our national service, we’re all mucking in.” You know, we’ve got the officer class and we’ve got the foot soldiers as well, we’re all just getting it done.
Did you feel differently after you became a vaccinator? Did it feel like it was another level of helping?
Caroline: Yes.
Vicky: I don’t want to put down anybody who isn’t a vaccinator, because obviously everybody —
Caroline: No. I actually don’t just do vaccinating now, I still do the full range of volunteer roles, which I think, for me, is really important. It’s like showing that we’re all part of this. So, there is no hierarchy, we’re all part of it. So, I think it’s important I do all those roles.
But it was really… For me, it was quite striking. I was doing my grandmother’s family history, I didn’t know much about her childhood. It had always been in the back of my mind that this place called Downham was where she had some of her childhood years. And then it’s quite striking that those volunteer opportunities opened up on Downham, and it was just —
Vicky: It’s like you’ve been pulled back here.
Caroline: Yes. I believe — It feels like that way. For some reason, I feel I’m meant to be here.
Vicky: I like the sound of that. Yes, I didn’t- I knew where Downham was, but I never came up here before all of this started.
Caroline: I was volunteering for a Downham food project for about a year before, and I kind of knew, in the back of my mind, Downham, but my geography wasn’t that brilliant, shamefully. And then all these volunteering opportunities started presenting themselves in Downham during the pandemic. And it was just — It really is like you’re walking in the footsteps of ancestors and serving the community that they were part of.
Vicky: That’s a really good way of putting it. How do you feel about knowing that we — Well, we’re not coming to the end yet, but probably the end of the year, we are going to have vaccinated as many people as we can. What are you going to take from this year?
Caroline: So many friendships. And also, I think it sort of changes mindsets as well, your perception of what you can do. And it’s almost anything is possible, because of that positive culture here, and in Downham, in the other projects I’m involved with. Downham is now very much in my heart and in my system, so —
Vicky: Me too.
Caroline: So, I don’t think I’ll ever leave Downham. I go to some of the local churches now, and the Forest Church as well.
Vicky: You are fully embedded here now. (Laughter)
Caroline: Yes. I don’t know what will happen after December. I came across that really old song with one of the Kids from Fame about this is a special place.
Vicky: Ah.
Caroline: And I know it’s really cheesy, really corny, and you kind of play it and you’re like … Downham is always going to be a special place and, whether the journey of life carries on or where we end up, I don’t see I’m moving on for a while. But who knows? No-one knew the pandemic was coming. But it is very much a part of me now.
Vicky: Me too. And I just feel, when I come up here, it feels like, “Ah, here I am. We’re back again, for whatever the day is going to throw at us.” And it’s very special, and I’m honoured to have been a part of it. I’m still a part of it. But I’m really going to miss it.
Caroline: I think that’s right, I think we have discussed this before, and I do feel very honoured to be part of this team, part of the Downham community. And they have been so accepting as well, even though serving in the food project and everything else. Quite a dire situation of people being almost starving, if you like, but so accepting of the help they’re getting, as well.
And it’s at multiple levels of feeling when you have to rely on a food project or a food bank or social supermarket, but — And they’re sort of —
Vicky: Well, if your government lets you down or underfunds your healthcare and social services, then it’s good that there are community groups and charities and volunteers to step in and help people.
Caroline: Yes. But I have never felt like an outsider, I have always felt like I have belonged in Downham. And I wonder whether that also reaches back into my ancestry.
Vicky: I want to hear more about this family tree thing, about your local roots. So, is there anything you would like to tell people about your experiences on the vaccination programme?
Caroline: It has been really, really positive. I think also, for me, it has been quite transformative. I think, prior to this, a few years before, I really did feel like I had been head-banging. But also, it’s really bizarre for me in the political culture outside, it’s almost quite difficult, and the rhetoric around disability and everything else.
To find somewhere, almost slotting into a niche, where everyone accepts you, it’s such an accepting culture, I almost want to thank the team, as well. Downham has kind of opened up life really.
Vicky: For all of us. We have all done our part. Well, thank you very much, Caroline. Well, you and I are going to be friends, so I know I’m going to see you, but…
Caroline: Yes.
Vicky: Yes. I think there is going to be a time when we’re in a shop somewhere and we’re going to recognise somebody and go, “I remember you from Downham,” and we’ll just —
Caroline: “We vaccinated you.”
Vicky: Yes. It happens now. (Laughter)
Caroline: But even now, they’re coming with chocolates and stuff and saying-
Vicky: Yes.
Caroline: And that is just… That kind of hits home, just how special this is to everybody.
Vicky: You are going to love next week, because the oldies are coming back for their boosters. I have been making phone calls this morning. They are thrilled. They’re coming in on Friday and Saturday, so that’s a whole other — That’s my favourite thing, is vaccinating the older people. So, you’re going to hear a lot of stories. So, save your energy for Friday and Saturday, when they all come back in. (Laughter)
Caroline: Excellent.
Vicky: And thank you very much for contributing to Lewisham Vaccination Stories.
Caroline: Thank you.
Vicky: Thank you.