Graham Cloake has been a friendly face at Harrogate Hospital for half a century.
As he marks 50 years as a porter and more recently a post room worker, Graham is one of countless behind-the-scenes employees who hold the fabric of the hospital together. And he’s always done it with a listening ear, a smile and a joke.
With an ethos of treating everyone as he would a family member, not to mention a talent for witty poems and joke-telling, Graham has brightened the days of thousands of staff, patients and their families during his amazing five decades of service at the hospital.
It’s not a role he’d imagined when he left Granby High School aged 15 back in July 1967.
He joined the West Yorkshire Road Car Company repairing buses before moving on to a job as a panel beater and sprayer with a local garage. By the age of 21, he was still panel beating while also working at the Intercon nightclub in the basement of Copthall Towers (now The Exchange) on Station Parade.
And it was at the Intercon one night in December 1973 that he got chatting about nursing to a group of nurses on their Christmas party. They encouraged him to talk to the hospital’s head of teaching, Mrs Broughton, who invited him for a chat.
It didn’t quite go as planned. Graham recalls:
“I asked about nursing at first and Mrs Broughton said, ‘I see you’ve got some tattoos on your arms. I don’t think patients need to see tattoos.’ She said there were lots of other opportunities, and would I consider being a porter as they do a wonderful job.”
The early days
He started at the old Harrogate General Hospital on February 4, 1974. His first duties were on the cleaning and domestic side before he was shown the ropes by the head porter, Ernest Clark. His role involved taking patients between the theatres, wards and casualty, as well as transporting items to and from the laundry and sterile services at Scotton Banks Hospital. He says:
“I was taught not just what to do but how to care about people. I didn’t know before I started the job that I was that caring person, but it just seemed right.
“I’ve always had the approach of not mollycoddling patients but I still look after them. If I know they are going for a big operation, I try to look on the bright side. Some people are frightened and like to hold your hand when they are going to theatre.”
Left: Graham in 1981 at a charity jump for the Special Care Baby Unit and Children’s Ward. Right: Graham with his portering colleagues in the 1980s. From left are Cyril Jones, Michael Hodgson, Chris Sadler and Graham.
When Graham started his job, the current Harrogate District Hospital was under construction, the first phase of which would open in January 1975 with staff gradually transferring over during the following years. Graham moved there in 1979. He says:
“It was totally different to the old hospital but people were friendly. Everyone was an equal – the doctors, nurses and cleaners were so friendly. I used to go drinking with the doctors and they were all good close friends. I was even the best man for Dr Graham Garrod at his wedding in 1979.”
A lifetime at the hospital
Graham’s work at the hospital has crossed over into other areas of his life, too. He met his late first wife, Sally, when she was working in the catering department and they went on to have two children. He has known his present wife, Debra, whom he married in 2020, since she started working at the hospital in 1976.
Graham today with his wife Debra.
He ended up taking his bus driving licence in 1986 after ambulance driver Stan Beer recognised his caring nature and asked if he would be interested in taking elderly people out on day trips from some of the local nursing homes.
His bus driving would later open up other opportunities for him. He started coach driving at the weekends when he was not working at the hospital, and this led to a six-month stint with a local company driving qualified East Germans who were looking for work from Berlin to Harrogate and back after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. He later also worked as a school bus driver for Abbots of Leeming.
Now 71, Graham took semi-retirement when he reached 60 and in recent years has worked in the hospital’s post room. He continues to work beyond retirement age because he enjoys making a positive difference to peoples’ lives.
Reflecting on the many changes over his five decades at the hospital, he thinks the respect and close working relationships between the ‘back-room’ workers and managers has been lost under the pressure of the work and the lack of staff. He’s had little acknowledgement from the hospital of his 50 years’ service. He says:
“It’s changed now, everyone is so stressed out. There’s not enough staff these days and a lot of pressure. In the early days, I was always talking to people. Now, you don’t get the chance so much. So many people I knew have retired now. But the job keeps me happy; I still enjoy it.
“I still love trying to cheer people up. Most of my jokes are ad lib, and I started writing poems for some of the departments. They can have a bit of wit in them. I wrote one recently for Orthotics and they’ve put theirs on the wall.”
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Harrogate hospital greengrocer for sale
A Harrogate fruit and vegetable company is up for sale.
KD Fruiterers, a family-run business based outside Harrogate District Hospital, today took to social media to announce the news.
In a video shared on Facebook, owners Kris Dickinson and Cat Recchia said although they have “worked very hard to build KD”, the couple feel it’s time to “start a new chapter”.
Since launching the business in 2018 the couple have started a family, they said, and are now looking for someone to take over KD Fruiterers so they can “realign” their work-life balance.
The owners added:
“This then becomes a great opportunity for someone with the time to grow the business further.
“For anyone who may be interested in taking on a well-established business, please get in touch.”
The Stray Ferret approached KD Fruiterers about the sale. Ms Recchia said:
“It’s a really great business and we want to support whoever takes it on to continue its success.”
The owners said the company’s delivery service would also be included in the sale, but did not disclose the asking price of the business.
The video assured existing customers that the current owners will “continue to provide the same great service” until the change of ownership, and the couple urged people to “please stick with us and we will keep you informed”.
KD Fruiterers asked those looking for more information to contact Ms Recchia on 07837100009.
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Ripon garden centre now equipped to look after hearts and flowers
Tom Tate has a personal reason for installing a defibrillator at the Ripon garden centre and nursery that bears his family’s name,
The family-run business, which was founded by Fred and Frank Tate more than 80 years ago, faced a worrying time when Tom’s son Freddie — the newest member of the dynasty — was diagnosed with a heart condition after he was born at Harrogate District Hospital two years ago.
Tom told the Stray Ferret:
“It was an anxious time for his mum Sarah, myself and all the family, but the doctors sorted him out and he is a healthy and happy little boy.”
Freddie Tate carrying out an inspection of the family-owned garden centre on his miniature John Deere Gator. Picture: F. Tate & Sons
He added:
“With this experience, it made me realise that heart issues can affect anybody, from new born babies to the elderly and with the 150,000 plus visitors that we welcome here each year, installing a defibrillator made a lot of sense.
“We have people who come to buy flowers. plants and ornaments for their gardens, or to dine in our Olive Tree restaurant and in addition to this, thousands come in all weathers to the annual charity tractor events that we stage”
Tom’s mum Jayne, pointed out:
“With the newly-installed defibrillator we are equipped to look after hearts as well as flowers and we hope that this gives added peace of mind to people who visit us.”
Tates garden centre is the 24th location in Ripon and the surrounding area to install a defibrillator. All other locations can be found be clicking on this link to the Defibs Ripon Facebook page.
Main picture: Tom Tate with his mum Jayne next to the newly-installed defibrillator
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A toaster fire at Harrogate District Hospital proved to be just the start of an incident-packed day for local firefighters yesterday.
Crews from Harrogate and Knaresborough were called to the hospital on Lancaster Park Road at 8am.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident report said:
“The fire originated in an industrial rotating toaster, and caused 25% fire damage to the kitchen, and light smoke logging to a communal area.”
It proved to be the first of several call-outs yesterday.
Teen rescued from car
At 11.07am, firefighters from Boroughbridge and Ripon rushed to a single vehicle car crash at Skelton Road in Boroughbridge where a Peugout 206 had careered off the road.
Crews used an electric saw to get into the vehicle through the windscreen and free a female driver. who was described as “approximately 17” in the incident report. It added:
“The female was uninjured and left in the care of the air ambulance service.”
Two-car crash on A1
The A1 at Boroughbridge
At 12.14pm, crews from Ripon, Boroughbridge and Northallerton responded to reports of a Hyundai and an Audi colliding between junctions 48 and 49 on the northbound A1(M).
The incident report said:
“All occupants of the vehicles were out on arrival. The female driver of the Hyundai, aged approximately 40s, suffered superficial injuries only.
“The male driver, and female passenger of the Audi, both aged approximately 50s, were uninjured. Crews used a turfer winch to remove the vehicles to a safe location.”
Barn fire in Spofforth
At 1.59pm, Harrogate firefighters were back out again. This time they were joined by a crew from Wetherby to a barn fire at Park Lane in Spofforth.
Water bowsers from Tadcaster and Boroughbridge also responded.
The incident report said the barn, which measured about 40 metres by 20 metres, contained straw and the incident was still ongoing by late afternoon.
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‘Beeping’ barriers to be removed by September at Harrogate hospital
A new “beeping” sound coming from a car park barrier will be removed in the next few weeks, Harrogate Hospital has said.
A resident contacted the Stray Ferret to say the noise, which activates every time the barrier at the entrance is used, was causing a nuisance.
David Spain, who lives around 100m from the hospital, said the beeping sound had originally been present when the barrier was first installed many years ago.
After residents complained about the noise, it was switched off. However, the barrier was recently repaired and, when switched back on, the beeping had returned.
He said:
“With my doors and windows closed, I can hear it clearly from about 6am when people start coming to work.
“Being retired and not having to get up at that time, I don’t really want to be woken by it. It’s not going to shatter any windows, but it is irritating.
“It’s when it goes up that it beeps. When it comes down, it doesn’t beep, which seems strange.”
Mr Spain said he had contacted the hospital to raise the issue when it started around 10 days ago, but had no response.
However, he said he was still pleased to live close to the hospital, which had treated him in an emergency, adding:
“They saved my life – I’ve got no beef with the hospital. I would be dead if it weren’t for them.”
A spokesperson for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT), which runs the hospital, said:
“The Trust holds a duty of care for the safety of our patients, visitors and colleagues. Our barriers at the main visitor car park at Harrogate District Hospital are fitted with an alert noise with a set volume as a safety measure to ensure we warn and protect anyone in the vicinity of them.
“This is to ensure that we adhere to our health and safety commitments of keeping our patients, visitors and colleagues from harm and injury.”
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Parking at the hospital has been under review for some time, in a bid to reduce the amount of queuing onto the road at peak times.
HDFT announced earlier this year that a new system would be introduced later this year.
The spokesperson today confirmed this, adding:
“We have recognised that improvements are required to our car parking provision and we are implementing a new car parking management solution across the hospital site that will be in place by September 2023.
“This new car parking system will have number plate recognition which will replace the current barrier system, ensuring no further warning noises are necessary.”