Membership Manager
Addenbrookes Hospital

Fraser R

00:00:45 My name’s Fraser R and my job title is Membership Manager. We have a membership made up of staff, patients and the public. We are the office that provides them with information. If one of the departments in the organisation wants to find out a bit more about what it’s patients or service users think about it, then we will facilitate an event – whether it be a focus group or something similar. Feedback, whether it be good or bad is really valuable, and part of my role is making sure that that is fed into the organisation in such a way that it makes a difference. Meeting with patients and their families who are so willing to share their experiences from the darkest – but also sometimes the most inspiring times in their lives – is really moving, and I think it’s been the most influencing in terms of you know what I think of the role here, and why I think that the organisation does such an important job.

00:02:00 When I was ten I wanted to be the first man on Mars, funnily enough. I haven’t achieved that, my career path has taken a very different slant. And there were aspects of school that I didn’t like. I guess by the time I came to leave school I was ready to leave, and I really looked forward to being that bit more grown up and going to University and the other opportunities that open up. From leaving school I went to University and studied Sports Science. I guess my aspirations were either to work for a large sports club – possibly a rugby club or a football club. Part of what drove me as well was a keenness to take on responsibility, and that led me through into working for a Health Club, where one of my responsibilities was the satisfaction of the members, and that therefore led in to the membership side of what I now do. I’m not quite sure what my friends would have thought. I suppose they might have seen me working in a job linked to the sciences somewhere. I certainly couldn’t have predicted that I’d be doing this but, I don’t know, that’s an interesting one. What would I like to be doing in five or ten years? Ideally I think the NHS is a great place to work, so I’d be very happy if I was still within the NHS. The good thing about particularly where I work now is there are so many developments going on, so I would like to be involved in leading one of those developments, or helping manage a project.

00:02:42 The boyhood hero for me was a member of my family, he was my Grandfather. And I knew from a young age that he was a War veteran, and it was only as I got older and spoke to him when I became more of an adult, that I realised the sort of seriousness of the situations that he’d been in, and I guess it puts into perspective things that I think are a crisis or something to worry about. He’s probably been the most – the person that’s shaped who I am I suppose, growing up.

00:03:16 I think what appeals about working in a hospital, is the fact that the work that goes on here every day makes such a huge difference to people’s lives. I mean it’s life and death things going on here every day. Having the opportunity and the privilege really of listening to people’s experiences is what really appeals. It’s been a real eye opener about the kind of – the kind of bravery really – I mean people who have put up with this huge disruption to their life, and their families lives, and have been able to talk about it so eloquently at focus groups so – with a view to making things better for others. I consider myself very fortunate that I’ve come into a job that, for me, ticks all the boxes of what I find exciting and enjoyable about coming to work. So although I didn’t expect to be here, I’m pleased that I am.

00:04:18 ENDS