![]() ![]() He says his father took good care of the bag and the instruments inside as he had to be prepared. His son, Dr Adrian Hayter, took the bag to Repair Shop after his father died last year aged 85. Raised in Burma, he entered medical school at 16 and found work as a GP in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. And it’s something else to focus on three times a day when they can forget being sick and just be happy children again.”ĭoctor Noel Hayter used his leather bag for decades after coming to England in 1960. She says: “In comparison to a toddler, he’s like the size of a real train. Her young patients’ faces light up when they see him being wheeled into their rooms with their meals. Having Thomas back on the ward as good as new has been a pleasure, says Katie. One mother, whose son Lewis died several years ago, has a picture of him with Thomas in the trolley’s heyday, and has been in touch with the nurses to say how seeing him on The Repair Shop will bring back joyful memories of her boy, who loved Thomas. It’s something normal at an abnormal time.” “For them to see Thomas the Tank, it just lets them forget what’s going on, helps them forget the pain. ![]() ![]() Metal restorer Dominic Chinea assessed the damage and set about giving Thomas a brand new face, working doors and drawers that could give the trolley a new lease of life and deliver him back to the ward.Ĭatherine, who retired on the same day the restored trolley came back to the ward, says: “For anyone, going into hospital is a stressful time, but especially for a young child who’s in pain and doesn’t know what’s going on. That’s when we looked at doing something with The Repair Shop.”Ĭatherine and Katie made the trip to meet Jay Blades and the rest of the experts at the cabin. It was in such a state that the hospital had started talking about retiring him and getting a new trolley. There were some sharp handles, which meant the children couldn’t really go near it. She and ward manager Katie Wilson had tried in vain to get some quotes to repair the old trolley, but it was too expensive. His door had broken and he was looking the worse for wear, having been doing his rounds at Frimley Park Hospital in Farnborough, Surrey, since the early 1990s when staff nurse Catherine Reed first started working there. “Having been on the other end of the health service a couple of times throughout our lives, we know how important it is to make sure people get the right service at the right time, and to make sure they’re treated respectfully.”Ĭhildren staying on the paediatric ward had been warned to stay clear of the old, broken Thomas the Tank Engine catering trolley that served their meals. Kate, a former co-ordinator for stroke services, adds: “What an honour to work so hard to make things right for people when they’re at their most vulnerable. “This is like us handing on the baton to Fiona as she flourishes in her NHS career,” Bill says. ![]() In an emotional moment from the episode Bill slips his nursing badge into the drawer for Fiona to treasure – and Kate had no idea he was planning to do it. “We want to pass it on to our daughter Fiona, who’s an occupational therapist. “We’re keeping it out of direct sunlight and nobody’s allowed to put anything on it that might scratch it. “It’s back with us and it’s being treated like royalty,” laughs Kate. When Bill and Kate saw the restored desk, they couldn’t believe the transformation. Will set about stripping back the old synthetic varnish and applying wax to the drawers that had become sticky.Īfter a layer of special wood stain and some TLC, the desk was as good as new again. The desk was scuffed, stained and faded from sun damage by the time it got into Repair Shop expert Will Kirk’s hands.Īs well as using it for his nursing studies, Bill and Kate, both 60, let their kids to do their homework and colouring on the 1940s desk, and it needed a specialist to restore it to its prime. As newlyweds we didn’t have much nice furniture but I brought it home and it’s been with us ever since.” “I nicked it off my lecturer as he had his eye on it. “It was a beautiful desk, just sitting in the corner of this room,” he remembers. The year was 1987 and Bill had just married wife Kate, and was studying to become a specialist mental health nurse. Bill McDonald, 60, first spotted the dusty desk as a student nurse when his lecturer told him there was furniture about to be skipped as the Gartloch Hospital’s school of nursing in Glasgow was closing down. ![]()
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