Earlier this year, our Administration Office in Hampton was delighted to welcome Lewis Martin, a Sports Journalism student from UCA Farnham. Lewis spent a day per week, for two months, working with the Fundraising & Marketing Team. He has kindly written about his experience with us, to share with you.

As part of my University course, I was required to complete a placement in a related field and I knew about the Charity through my mum, who works in the Surbiton Home. I also completed my year 10 work experience unit in the Physiotherapy department of the old Richmond Home and volunteered at last year’s Surbiton Home Summer Fete. So, I knew the Charity quite well and as a result, I thought that it would be the perfect place to gain some valuable experience.

I spent time with the residents at the old Richmond Home and more recently at Surbiton and enjoyed visiting both Homes. The Richmond Home was amazing and vast, with unsurpassable architecture, and views of the surrounding Richmond Park. The Surbiton Home is an equally impressive building that has been designed for 21^st century care. Regardless of the building, the extraordinary level of care and dedication from staff that I’ve seen has not changed.

Meeting the residents was an amazing opportunity and one that I won’t forget anytime soon. I distinctly remember talking to one man at Richmond who told me that he was stationed in Africa and I can recall him saying: “The enemy weren’t the worst thing, it was the amount of mosquitoes!”

I was also lucky enough to meet the lovely Vi Butler at the Summer Fete. Vi turned 100 last August and is good friends with my mum. I also got the opportunity to join in with the group activity sessions when I was in Richmond. Even now, I can still remember singing along to ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’.

My experiences with the Charity have been nothing but positive and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work within the Fundraising & Marketing Team. The eight weeks flew by and I’m pleased to have been able to put the skills learnt from my course to practical use. With this in mind, I found that researching and analysing the Charity’s library of literature was a task that I was not only well-suited for, but also thoroughly enjoyed.

In regards to my plans for the future, I am planning to travel, as I have never been abroad but have always had the desire to see as much of the world as possible. I probably won’t take too long out to accomplish this though, as I do have ambitions of working towards a lofty, six-figure salary!

To sum up my experience of working with the Charity, I would be able to do so in one word: Inspirational.

The Fundraising & Marketing Team would like to thank Lewis for taking the time to work with us and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours.