Trevor's Sightline Story

Trevor’s
Sightline Story

I speak with 2 befriendees each week. My first call of the week is with a lovely chap named Derek, who has several health conditions and lives alone.

He’s currently attending lots of appointments with doctors and nurses, so we spend time chatting through how those have gone and how he is feeling generally.

Quite often, my befriendee leads the conversation as I think he really appreciates me listening as he hasn’t anyone else to talk to.

We’ve been chatting since 2023 and whilst Derek does have a lot of issues going on with his health, his sense of humour hasn’t been affected. We always have a laugh and joke during our calls at some point; I always try and find a positive for Derek to focus on.

Derek always asks how my wife and I are and what we’ve been up to that week. It’s very much a two-way street on our calls and I enjoy sharing what I have been up to with him.

My other befriendee who is speak with towards the end of the week is very chatty, just like Derek. We enjoy discussing family life and holidays. We have a little ongoing joke about whose wife can book another little break away first and where that will be. An hour passes by in no time as the conversation just flows.

James has just been unexpectedly admitted to hospital, which I found out during my most recent scheduled call. I chatted with his wife briefly who told me he would be unavailable for our calls for the next week or so. This isn’t a problem though as I just made a quick call to the Sightline team, and they can pause the calls until they need to resume again. James’ wife reassured me that he is in good spirits and that looks forward to updating me all about his time in hospital when he’s home. James also made sure his wife was to tell me that whilst he is in hospital she better get another holiday booked for his recuperation, although somewhere a bit more exotic than Bognor might be preferred!

I can’t ever imagine not volunteering my time to do these calls now; they’re so enjoyable and I really would miss chatting to my befriendees. I’ve struck up real friendships with both and look forward to picking up the phone each week.