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Features
HEALTH CARE AND VOLUNTEERING DURING THE PANDEMIC
Standing up to do the job
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Rebecca Jones (Appelboam) K’89 reflects on her experience as a consultant in Intensive Care during the Covid-19 pandemic
I have been a consultant in Intensive Care for nearly 10 years. I chose Intensive Care because of the complexity of disease, the challenge to make people well again, the opportunity to interact with all different specialties in the hospital, and the chance to support and guide patients and relatives through what is usually a life-changing experience.
The pandemic of 2020 was, and is, a real challenge. The infectious nature of Covid-19 meant that the ICU became sealed. It was one way in and one way out – making it difficult for other specialties to visit us. Although the work was similar to what I have done for years, the visiting restrictions and need to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) made it feel very different.
The PPE in itself posed a number of challenges. Simply putting it on and taking it off required us to follow a series of complex steps in a strict order. This was so important that there were staff whose daily job was to watch us don and doff and tell us when we got it wrong – which we did, when we were tired.
Then there was the challenge of working in PPE. It’s hot, sweaty and cumbersome – and makes you unrecognisable to your colleagues and patients. Though I’ve known my colleagues for years, I couldn’t identify them in PPE. We couldn’t see each other’s faces, exchange glances, read emotions, or even hear each other clearly.
It felt like the patients were alone. They had nurses by their bedside, but no family – nobody to remind us of who they are. Not allowing families to visit their critically ill relatives broke my heart. After weeks, the patients made small, steady steps to getting better. The journey was long, and the challenges for them huge, but they did it. They left the ICU and they returned home. Many are traumatised, but they don’t really remember being there. Nor do they know the faces or names of the people who cared for them as if they were their own.
The generosity of strangers was extraordinary: food, gifts, and bottles and bottles of cool water were sent to the ICU. Homemade cakes. Sunday roasts! Even cosy pyjamas for when we got home.
The public were all clapping us, saying we were heroes. But most of the time we didn’t feel heroic – just very tired. Though it was hard, I felt lucky to be making a difference. Rather than being asked to stand by, I was able to stand up and do my job; to go to work and do what I could; to be where I was most needed. That was a tremendous privilege.
Behind the rainbow
Returning to the NHS as a Speech and Language Therapist after years in private practice was a profoundly rewarding experience, says Claire Greville-Heygate (Bunce) T’98
At the start of this year, I found myself working as a Speech and Language Therapist back in the NHS, after several years in private practice. My new role was Clinical Lead of the Adult Community Team in Oxford, who assess and treat adults with acquired communication and/or swallowing difficulties. These can come about as a result of conditions like stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’ s disease or motor neurone disease.
Prior to March, the public perception of the NHS was low: it seemed that staff worked without recognition, and the press only reported on examples of poor care. That is why I launched a campaign called #spreadnhslove, to encourage people to share stories of how they appreciated those who work in the NHS. Within just a few weeks, Covid hit – and love for the NHS was everywhere. Thursday clapping and Captain Tom did much to raise morale (and money, of course), and it was heartwarming to hear the public sing the praises of the NHS and talk about the great work we do.
Behind the rainbows and claps, though, working in the NHS during Covid has been exhausting and emotional. I had to carry out urgent assessments wearing the highest level of PPE. This meant changing into scrubs, a full surgical gown, gloves, FFP3 face mask and full face visor in my car, before I could enter a patient’s home or a nursing home. Wearing it for an hour at a time in the summer was hot and slightly claustrophobic, to say the least.
For patients whose cases were not deemed urgent, we started conducting digital consultations (tele-therapy). This is something that no doubt would have taken us years to instigate under ‘normal’ circumstances. But instead, everyone jumped to try new ways of working and we were up and running within a few weeks. Although the tele-therapy approach has its limitations, on the whole it has been a brilliant way of supporting patients and their families when they might otherwise have been unable to access help.
In September, I accepted a new role as a Speech and Language Therapist in a medium secure forensic unit for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems. Alongside psychiatrists, psychologists and other nursing and therapy staff, I work with men who have committed an offence and are in the judicial system. This brings about a new set of challenges, as many of them have been on the ward for longer than Covid-19 has been around, and have had limited exposure to the outside world. As a result, while most of the patients have some understanding of the virus, they do not understand the full restrictions that people are under.
Once again, PPE is a necessity – and while the level of PPE is now lower, my colleagues and I must wear face masks all the time. This can lead to headaches and dehydration, and difficulties in communicating with those in our care. There is real evidence that we are in the midst of a mental health crisis. The pandemic has exacerbated this, with significant numbers of adults and children unable to access support. Keen to act, I trained as a facilitator for a charity called iheart, which delivers wellbeing and resilience training to school-aged children. The charity’s outcomes are extremely promising, and I was delighted to be able to take the training into
Behind the schools in Oxford. In addition, I set myself rainbows and a challenge to raise money and awareness of claps, though, iheart’s work. I took part in a 26-hour marathon, working in the which involved running one mile every hour for 26 hours through the day and
NHS during night – outside and on my own. When I completed Covid has been the challenge, I was blown away to discover that I’d exhausting and raised more than £7,000. This year of working emotional. in the NHS has been an experience I will never forget. Staff have put themselves forward for different roles, worked extra shifts, dealt with very distressing situations, and had to respond to constantly changing information and situations. Stress, anxiety, overwhelm and burnout are real problems. Despite this, there has been amazing bonding between teams and incredible advancements of service delivery that would otherwise not have happened. As I write this, there is promising news of a vaccine that will be ready to use very soon. I have signed up to be trained as a vaccinator – so if you live in Oxford, be warned!
It was challenging and satisfying in equal measure. A change of direction
Natasha Jones (Scrivens) K’87 switched her focus from sport medicine to general medical team during the pandemic
The Covid outbreak caused many disruptions to people’s lives, including in their working practices. For Natasha, it brought about a complete shift in her professional focus – from working in Sport and Exercise Medicine to working in the trauma team at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Natasha is normally a consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. She also has a role with the English Institute of Sport as a sports physician, working with Olympic and Paralympic athletes across the last three Olympic cycles.
Everything changed in 2020, however. Natasha, who has been a consultant for 10 years, was redeployed to assist in the care of trauma patients at the John Radcliffe. “This represented a return to acute medicine after many years away,” she says. “It was challenging and satisfying in equal measure.”
As for many others, Natasha’s normal professional life will slowly resume. But her experience of Covid will definitely stay with her, and no doubt shape her future work in all sorts of unexpected ways.
VOLUNTEERING / HELPING OTHERS
Improving lives through art and science
HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan E’89 was named as UNESCO Special Envoy for Science for Peace in 2017
Combining her passion for art with a belief in the power of science to bring hope and opportunity, HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan is a champion of innovative research, education and entrepreneurship in Jordan and the Middle East. As president of the Royal Scientific Society and chair of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, she has helped to make Jordan a centre of excellence for applied research and mentorship.
An Art History graduate of the Courtauld Institute, Princess Sumaya works to unite science and the arts through her leadership of the Jordan Museum, helping to highlight the Islamic world’s often forgotten scientific heritage for the youth of Jordan and the region.
In 2017, Princess Sumaya brought the leading gathering of global science policymakers, the Word Science Forum, to Jordan, marking a first for the Middle East. She was named as UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Science for Peace and regularly speaks at highlevel forums on science, education and the arts.
Princess Sumaya contributes to research publications and media on topics as diverse as water, nanochemistry and biodiversity, promoting evidencebased advice for decision-makers and supporting the unlocking of scientific and creative talent to help tackle global challenges.
Princess Sumaya was awarded the Chancellor’s Citation at the University of California, Berkeley and has been incorporated as a foreign member of Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras (RACEF), Spain’s national science academy. She is a founder member of UNESCO’s High Panel on Science and Technology for Development and heads the advisory board of the Middle East and North Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA NWC). Princess Sumaya has worked with the UK’s Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science diplomacy to tackle global challenges.
Royal Scientific Society of Jordan
Caring in the community
Alexandra Pentolfe DH’06 made use of her freedom during lockdown to help the local community
During lockdown I was fortunate to have the luxury of time and the freedom to use it as I wished. I wanted to help the local community and support local businesses, so I volunteered for Sherborne Viral Kindness (SVK) and Yeovil District Hospital.
My role with SVK involved looking after a street of houses with any errands they required. Common requests included help with grocery shopping, posting letters and collecting prescriptions.
At Yeovil District Hospital my role was to help the team on a ward. I made beds, fed patients and talked to them because they were unable to have their family with them due to the Covid restrictions.
I feel very grateful to live in a community where people are willing to help. We did a great job of coming together and supporting each other. Among the chaos of the pandemic, my time volunteering allowed me to gain perspective: rather than concentrating on what I didn’t have I was able to appreciate what I did.
Artist Emma Young (Rose) K’81 painted her gate into a rainbow to raise money for the NHS https:// www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ Emma-Rose28. So far she has raised £650 and counting. Do visit her to see the gate and her Art Studio https:// emmaroseartworks.com
Feeding the hungry
Helen McLuskie (Garton) A’82 was busier than ever during lockdown, working to support those most in need
While friends and family complained of the constraints of lockdown and running out of things to do, as a trustee of Towcester Foodbank, that wasn’t my problem. At the start of lockdown it turned out I was the only trustee fit and under 70. So I ended up finding new premises, moving four and a half tonnes of largely tinned food, recruiting and training new volunteers, and implementing a contactless system fit for lockdown. It was busy, hard work, and great fun – so many gave up their time to help.
People’s generosity has been truly heartwarming, and not just food: one chap gave us his furlough money, and an 11-year-old raised £150 running around her garden (Captain Tom has a lot to answer for).
Demand for food parcels has not been as great as anticipated due to local popups, though as these now pop back again our footfall is increasing and we expect much greater need going into the winter. The pandemic has brought us a bunch of new volunteers (including Juliet Measures (Clutterbuck) W’78, many of whom are younger, fitter and more tech-savvy than the old guard. Lockdown forced us to work digitally and we have forged closer links with the local council, support agencies and other foodbanks in our area. We are now better equipped than ever to meet the challenges to come.
So, what will my memories of the pandemic be? Shelves in the warehouse bursting with food – we never ran out of pasta. British Gas vans arriving with our weekly food donation from Tesco. Frustrated volunteers struggling to work the tablet with gloved fingers. The smell of hand sanitiser. Laughing with volunteers as we packed food bags together. Roads without a car in sight. The relief in an elderly lady’s voice when she realised we could feed her cat. The goodwill and generosity of so many strangers. The gratitude of those we helped.
Yes, it was a busy time but it was also very rewarding. It will stay with me for ever.
Making waves in lockdown
Young composer Anna Disley-Simpson K’14 wrote a special piece of music during lockdown, which was recorded by the London Oriana Choir
The Covid pandemic has inspired the creativity of many people, and musician Anna is no exception. She wrote Waves, a moving piece of choral music, as a meditation on the collective experience of lockdown. Soon after scoring it in June 2020, she oversaw the process of recording it virtually, with the London Oriana Choir conducted by Dominic Ellis-Peckham bringing the piece to life.
“The motif behind the piece is of the gesture of a wave,” explains Anna. “It could be a sound wave or a tidal wave, or even a Mexican wave. The idea is that it’s something that starts incredibly small and then builds into layers and layers of texture.
“The composition is wordless, focusing instead on the vowels and tonal quality in the voice to communicate structure and meaning. In making the recording, I collaborated with a videographer, who made a film incorporating the lockdown experiences of the singers. Throughout, our aim was to convey the times we are in through a lens of hope and celebration of community.”
Waves isn’t the first composition by Anna to receive critical acclaim. An earlier piece, called In their gold coats and based on an extract from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was performed by the London Oriana Choir in June 2019 and drew favourable reviews.
In addition to her role as Composer in Residence for the Oriana Choir, Anna is the Graduate Musician in Residence at Radley College. She teaches Music Technology and works closely with the school’s pop and rock bands.
Anna studied Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music and continues to hone her skills as part of the Young Composers Scheme with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Her work has been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Singers, the No Dice Collective, Kantos Chamber Choir and members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
She is a former winner of the BBC Young Composer of the Year competition and her music has been performed at venues including the Southbank Centre, the Saatchi Gallery, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Snape Maltings and the British Library.
As a performer, Anna currently sings with the highly regarded London Contemporary Voices and previously belonged to various Manchester-based ensembles with a particular interest in new music performance, premiering the work of many of her composer-peers. In 2018 she toured Europe as a singer and synth player with the band New Order, which was subsequently included as part of the documentary Decades on Sky Arts.
To see the video of Waves,
visit: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Qwthd5Obkf8 We were delighted to be able to listen to Waves in the Old Girls Virtual Concert, which is available on our website.
CONSERVATION
Getting in deep
Chloe Stevens DH’20 writes about her placement with
a marine conservation charity in Mozambique
Love the Oceans is a non-profit marine conservation organisation set up by Francesca Trotman in 2014. It is based in Jangamo Bay in Mozambique and has a small team of permanent staff that is supported by a number of volunteers each year. After hearing a careers talk at Leeds University where I am now studying Biology, I applied for and gained a five-week research programme with the organisation.
The charity’s main goal in conserving the marine environment in Jangamo Bay is to establish a Marine Protected Area for the Inhambane Province in Mozambique. It also engages in marine research, community education, and diving.
A sustainable approach
Love the Oceans aims to make its work sustainable so that one day it won’t be needed in the area because local people are working themselves to protect the marine environment. It always seeks permission from the village elders for any actions taken, using this as a valuable opportunity to learn more about the environment from the local people.
My placement includes PADI open water training in the reefs around the bay followed by working with the team for five weeks in all areas of their work. I will get to assist scuba expedition research, involving seabed transects which help to enhance understanding of the marine ecosystem and inform the conservation efforts.
Another way Love the Oceans surveys the area is through megafauna research. This helps identify and monitor species of humpback whales and whale sharks, which migrate through the area in the summer months.
Community working
One of the things that makes the charity so effective is its community work. Its bottomup methods include fisheries research to understand and teach sustainable fishing in the area, and education. As part of my work out there I will be helping to teach in the local school, with a focus on marine biology and interacting with the sea in a sustainable way. I will also teach swimming: essential in cultivating a confident and curious relationship with the marine environment.
A final important aspect of Love the Oceans’ work is collecting and managing ocean trash – an issue that currently receives a lot of attention throughout the world. As part of this initiative, each year the charity runs a Christmas jumper design campaign with a marine-themed pun. The sale of every jumper leads to the collection of 2kg of ocean plastic and waste. This year I won with my ‘A Whale in a Manger’ idea, meaning the Love the Oceans sustainably produced Christmas jumpers for 2020 feature my design. All profits go to funding research and conservation efforts and you can order your jumper here: https://lovetheoceans. teemill.com/collection/christmascollection/
A personal reflection
I’d like to end on a personal note. I am a disabled person living with severe chronic pain and throughout school I was scared that opportunities like this placement would not be available for me. But I would like to emphasise to others in a similar position that there are so many different paths to follow. Love the Oceans has been extremely open in offering adaptations and options that mean I can still pursue my passion for marine biology in the field.
There aren’t necessarily many disability role models in schools like Sherborne Girls, so I would like to say that I am always happy to talk to people who would like advice about how university can work for disabled students and what your rights are in terms of support and making sure you can still follow your passions. It’s my experience that nothing needs to stand in the way of your dreams – you just have to know how best to grasp the opportunities before you.
Making a difference to our world
Frances Budd DH’17 reflects on her vocation to work in conservation once she graduates from the University of Edinburgh.
I am currently in my final year of an Ecological and Environmental Sciences degree at the University of Edinburgh. Once I graduate, I hope very much to pursue a career in conservation.
I have had several experiences in this sector over the years. It began with volunteering at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, gaining hands-on experience in animal husbandry and fostering orphaned Orangutans.
Frontline conservation isn’t always on foot and in the jungle, though. Last year I worked with the World Cetacean Alliance. Its work is invaluable for the global conservation efforts for whales and dolphins and is coordinated by a few driven individuals from laptops in a small office in Brighton.
Whales may seem like charismatic creatures, worthy of conservation for the tourism industry alone. They are so much more, though, serving as watery warriors in our climate mission
by sequestering a vast amount of carbon in their bodies. This settles and stores at the bottom of the ocean when they pass on. A single whale is worth thousands of trees.
Island life
Like many before me, during my gap year I volunteered on a turtle conservation project. I spent a month at Camaronal Wildlife Refuge. I love the barefoot island lifestyle, but the physical labour was very tiring. During the day we worked on building a hatchery – a place where eggs are protected from predators. This is no mean feat and involved carrying heavy logs and digging in the sand in the midday Costa Rican heat. We also dug trenches to prevent flooding into the hatchery when it rained – something it did a lot. At night we took turns either manning the lookout or walking along the beach to find mother turtles laying eggs that we could move to the hatchery.
One of the main threats to turtles is the illegal trade of eggs, as well as consumption by furrier poachers. There is nothing quite like shining a redlight torch into the pitch black of a midnight beach to see a racoon’s big eyes staring back at you. They are pretty nasty pests known to bite mother turtles as they lay eggs, and then demolish everything she’s laid.
Despite our best efforts, there is only so much we can do from the shore to protect the hatchlings as they head out to sea. Out there an incomprehensible amount of fishing gear and other plastic debris causes too many deaths. This experience definitely kick-started my conservation career and I am so grateful to the School, and the Pilkington Travel Award, for supporting me with the opportunity.
Internship plans
This summer I had a diving internship researching sharks and rays in Indonesia, but it was cancelled for obvious reasons. Instead, if all goes to plan, I will be travelling to Mexico this summer for two placements. Firstly, with the Manta Caribbean project, an NGO dedicated to the conservation, research and education of Manta rays. They are my favourite animal and I am beyond excited to work for a cause that contributes to their protection. Secondly, with Operation Wallacea, a biodiversity research organisation, this time with the emphasis on turtle behavioural ecology research.
I will also be taking underwater photos of corals. These images can be calibrated with satellite images to help detect bleaching. Bleached corals are just one of the many ways we negatively affect the natural world.
I am focusing on corals for my dissertation. I aim to investigate a specific kind of free-living coral species, which may be helpful for establishing new reefs in usually unsuitable habitats. I also spent this Christmas working with Think Pacific on their virtual internship program helping to design artificial coral reefs in Fiji.
A better world
The conservation movement will protect biodiversity, not only for our future generations but for the sake of nature itself. It ensures that the ecosystems we rely on to survive will continue to work, to give us water to drink, air to breathe, medicines to cure and insects to pollinate our food. It could enable us to sequester enough carbon to halt climate change and prevent mass extinction. Our world is one giant puzzle, and each piece is essential. Conservation not only works for our flora and fauna, but to protect our indigenous communities around the globe and alleviate poverty. Conservation is creating a better world for us all.
Even better, conservation is for everyone. It doesn’t always involve exotic diving expeditions and cute turtles. Conservation can look like climate marches or charity fundraising. It begins with the consumer and how we choose to vote with our money. It can be choosing the organic carrots, the plastic-free potatoes or the sustainably caught fish. It can be walking to work, eating vegetarian more often, or giving up fast fashion.
The fate of the world is not our individual responsibility. But we can still show up and make our voices heard. There are many sides to conservation and I’m not entirely sure which one I’ll end up on. Whatever happens, I am excited by the prospect of joining the small but growing number of people out there doing good work to make a difference for our world.
THE LONG BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP
Even though the pandemic interfered with most people’s plans for 2020, the bonds between Sherborne Old Girls remained as strong as ever.
As Heather Caverhill (White) E’57 wrote: “I had my 80th birthday in March and had planned a celebratory lunch in London for my family and a few very close friends. I invited a friend from School, Ruth Startin (Marshall) E’57, and was delighted when she accepted. Ruth lives in Essex and I’m in Devon, so there is some distance between us.
“Very sadly, Covid overtook the event and it had to be cancelled. Next year it will be 70 years since Ruth and I first met in Ealhstan. I hope very much that we can meet then and enjoy our postponed celebration.”
