Alan Norton joined in June 2008 as part of the Tuesday and Thursday teams.  He can be heard on Tuesday’s HRC Requests from 8.30pm.  In his own words, this is why Alan joined:

I took an early retirement in early 2007, after many years of running my own and other people’s business. What I didn’t realise was that, despite my wife’s warnings,  I hadn’t prepared properly for retirement. After the initial rounds of decorating the house and re-landscaping the garden, something all retirees go through, what else could I do - Golf seemed to lose its pall after I lost too many balls! I even passed NVQs in new skills and wondered about starting up a new business, but the poor economic climate was too great a deterrent. I had been a member of a Voluntary Service Club for many years and so I turned to the Voluntary Sector for inspiration.

A chance sighting of a newspaper ad asking for Hospital Radio Volunteers caught my eye in June 2008, and I applied to join. I have always listened to Radio in all its forms from a young age, and in fact, prefer it to much of today’s Television dross.

Thoughts of being the next Terry Wogan or Humphrey Littleton proved irresistible and so I joined up. I threw myself into 2 nights a week on the Request Shows for Tuesdays and Thursdays. My first duties was to meet patients and get them to choose a request for that evening’s show. This seemed easy to me, as most patients think I am a Consultant or Surgeon when I approach them, and then are genuinely relieved when I ask them for their request!

Naturally I have made mistakes. I managed to host a conversation on a closed microphone for several seconds, played the wrong track from CDs and even the wrong CD on occasions. All part of the learning curve!

Because of other commitments, I was forced to forego my Thursday duties at Christmas. However, soon after this I was asked to become Fundraising Officer on the Incoming Committee, as I had had a lot of experience in the past.  I took up this position in May 2009 and have endeavoured to Fund Raise ever since. I am still training on the decks and am constantly amazed at the degree of sophistication of the Studios.

Watch out Terry!