A woman who spent more than 40 years working at Paisley's hospital has returned to give up her time as a volunteer.
Margaret Gunduz worked in the town's former Royal Alexandra Infirmary and transferred to the new-build Royal Alexandra Hospital on its creation in 1986.
But she couldn't keep away after her retirement and returned to volunteer at the Corsebar Road hospital, helping patients prepare for discharge following a ward stay.
And she spoke of her experiences to mark Volunteers' Week - which runs until June 7.
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Margaret said: “l started work in the old RAI so long ago, around 1979. In 1986, we moved over to the RAH and l worked there until 2004, when l moved away to Turkey for a couple of years. But I returned to Scotland in 2006 and resumed my role at the RAH until my retirement in January 2020.
“I got involved in volunteering because when l retired l wanted and needed to do something to occupy my time and volunteering in the hospital and with the people l worked with seemed perfect, so I started in the discharge lounge.”
The 74-year-old Paisley woman has been volunteering at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde since January 2020, but has become one of the best known and well-loved faces at the RAH after more than four decades.
Margaret has provided support to healthcare teams during the throughout the past couple of years as part of the RAH Volunteer Covid Response team.
She has helped with everything from coordinating PPE distribution to being a key part of the Give & Go team, which provided a link between patients and families when hospital visiting was restricted due to the pandemic.
Once visitors returned to the wards, Margaret resumed her work supporting the discharge team at the RAH, where she makes a difference to patients waiting in the lounge, making sure they have a cuppa and a blether to help pass the time.
She has been part of an army of volunteers, who in the past year have clocked up an amazing 47,500 hours across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s hospital sites.
The volunteers have carried out tasks as varied as running the essential Give & Go service delivery service during covid visting restrictions, helping to improve gardens and greenspace, running the staff Rest and Relaxation Hubs, supporting Allied Health Professional teams in rehabilitation work with patients and in providing expert wayfinding across busy hospital sites.
Volunteer manager Harry Balch has extended his thanks to Margaret and other volunteers, saying: “Margaret has just been such an incredible support to us. She is always happy to help and her in depth knowledge of the people and places in the RAH have helped us out on many an occasion! We are so lucky to have her here as part of Team RAH.”
Margaret added: “I enjoy speaking to people of various walks of life and helping in whichever small way l can. Although I have worked here for so many years, l have learned a lot of new things while volunteering, like spending more time with people who maybe just need someone’s ear and being more patient with everyone.”
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