‘Totally lovely’ hairdresser befriends 94-year-old man and aids his recovery while volunteering at Northampton General Hospital

A family has praised a local hairdresser who volunteered at the hospital during lockdown for befriending their father and helping to aid his recovery.

Ken Smith was in Northampton General Hospital at the start of lockdown following a fall, but due to restrictions loved ones were not able to visit him.

On the ward where the 94-year-old stayed for four weeks, there were volunteers who had given up their time during the pandemic to help with tasks such as making drinks and providing companionship.

One of these volunteers was Tayla Wright, who wanted to do something meaningful while she was furloughed from her job as a hairdresser at Minx Hair Salon in Far Cotton.

The 24-year-old chatted to Ken, who had plenty of stories to tell her, and the pair ‘clicked’.

From then on, Tayla would sit and talk to Ken whenever she was in the hospital and even started going in every day.

Kay Roberts, Ken’s daughter, said: “As it was at the start of lockdown, we couldn’t get to see him.

“We would ring the ward but we didn’t want to keep bothering them as we knew they were busy.

Tayla, who is from Duston, added: “I saw the NHS needed volunteers and I knew it would be a long 12 weeks off so I wanted to do something valuable.

“I was helping out getting drinks and keeping people company because a simple chat can really benefit someone.

“I went in one day and said ‘who can I talk to today?’ and I was told to go and speak to Ken.

“He was really interesting and I was fascinated by what he had to say. He had 94 years of stories to tell me.

“He was really easy to talk to and I was so interested in the stuff he was telling me. We really clicked.”

Ken’s family are extremely thankful for what Tayla did as she was also able to feed back to them about how he was doing.

Kay added: “Tayla was just marvellous.

“She would speak to him everyday and she was able to report back to us, which we are so grateful for as it felt isolating to not know what was going on.

“Dad is mentally agile and he has quite a good sense of humour, so I think they have a laugh and a joke together.

“When dad came out, he was quite emotional. I think Tayla reminds him of a granddaughter who is in Australia.”

Now that Ken is out of hospital and back at home and Tayla is back to work, the pair have still stayed in contact and a firm friendship has been formed.

Kay said: “Dad thought that was it and he wouldn’t see her again, but then she texted me and asked if she could speak to him.

“It’s almost like we are welcoming her into our family now. She is a totally lovely person.”

Tayla added: “I didn’t realise how much I had helped him until about week three or four, but then his daughter told me he had drastically improved since we had been chatting.

“I wasn’t doing it for this reason, but to know you have helped someone recover is a really lovely feeling.

“Before we knew it four weeks had gone by. I had seen him everyday and I’d told him about my life and family too, so when he left I wanted to keep in contact with him.

“I like to check he is okay and I tell him about my weekend antics.”

Tayla now rings Ken every week and spends around 10 minutes chatting to him to keep their friendship going.

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