WRVS brand
Tuesday, September 07, 2010 | 09:52

Working with you

Working with you image

WRVS deliver emergency response training to local authorities and companies. Are you ready to respond?

Find out about emergency support centre management training

In emergencies and disasters

In emergencies and disasters image

Find out how you can help WRVS in emergency response teams

Introduce a friend

Introduce a friend image

Do you know someone who would make a great WRVS volunteer?

Send an e-card

Makes the text bigger Make text bigger

Evacuation to rest centres - London bombings, July 2005

Jean Cunliffe, emergency services volunteer during the London bombings

WRVS' emergency services are on call 24/7 to provide food, drink and welfare support at the scene of incidents. Over the past few years we have responded to power cuts, fires, floods, rail and air crashes as well as the London terrorist bombings.

Here's a glimpse of what one weekend in 2005 looked like for one emergency services volunteer.

Early morning, 7 July 2005 Jean Cunliffe and her husband John Price were watching the news when reports of the London bombings began to break. With 12 years experience, Jean knew WRVS could be called to help and sure enough emergency services manager, Margaret Partridge was soon on the line asking for her to stand by.

Once cleared by the police, Jean and John, who is also a WRVS volunteer, travelled to the Camden rest centre. They looked after guests evacuated from nearby hotels with nowhere to go. Jean said: "People in a desperate state need someone with the time to sit down and share their problems. Once you put on an orange tabard they feel safe with you."

Jean went prepared. Her emergency services 'grab box' - a large plastic crate - was crammed with tea, coffee, biscuits, water heater and cleaning materials. "I also had crayons for the children and plenty of hankies as there were many families to look after."

10 July With emergency services manager Margaret working at the Family Assistance Centre set up in Westminster after the bombings, Jean ran a large refreshment and recruiting marquee at the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Festival.

7am, 11 July Still reporting for duty! Jean went to supply fresh food and snacks to police and bereaved families at the assistance centre. Was she worried about travelling into London so soon after the attack?  "Certainly not, " she insists: "If the ladies of WVS carried on with bombs falling around them in the war, I could surely get on a train to London."

<Back to real life stories

 

Bookmark it & Share it