Kevin Hartley

My Message

I am of that age that I attempt different challenges for experience. I never saw Northern Air Hospital Radio as a job or even a hobby; I went along for a couple of weeks for the experience. I have to confess the whole presenting part I thought was a little dull. I have now been a member of the Patient Station that puts the treat into treatment for over 20 years.

After a couple of weeks, I was accompanied on my first ward-round meeting patients. Wow, I was hooked! I was meeting interesting people who were pleasant and polite despite the fact they would have preferred to have been anywhere other than talking to me. I have always found it to be a privilege and pleasure to visit the patients and get their requests.

Unfortunately, my disabilities now prevent me from visiting patients on the wards, so I try a little harder to get patients to ring in and have a chat to cheer themselves up and other patients.

After a couple of years, I was asked if I would present for a couple of weeks. As a presenter I have an unusual trait: I hope the listeners have never heard me before and I hope they never listen to me again, that will mean they have not been in hospital or if they do come into hospital they won’t be coming back. Unfortunately, that is not always the case and if you do find yourself in hospital at 8:00 p.m. on Friday you will hear Louis Armstrong, singing What a Wonderful World.

In my photograph I’m with my mascot Josh. I was given this by a patient, and I held a competition: “who would ring in the soonest to name my mascot”. A lady rang in to my show, she had recently given birth to a baby boy whom she named Josh, so she named my mascot after her new son. I felt privileged and Josh always sits on the desk next to me when I am presenting.