Siobhan and Arthur’s Story

Age is just a number

With an age gap of 55 years, Siobhan and Arthur may seem like an unlikely pairing. But through our Compassionate Neighbours scheme, the pair have become firm friends who see each other regularly and both benefit from the friendship in different ways. 

19-year-old Siobhan lives in Chorleywood and had signed up as a volunteer earlier in the year while working part time. She explains:  

“I had some time on my hands while I was working part-time so I thought ‘why not put it into helping others?’.” 

Having heard about the service from her mum, who works for the charity, Siobhan signed up and attended the training course that all Compassionate Neighbour volunteers complete.  

She said:  

“The training was great and covered all sorts of topics from grief and loss to communication skills. I particularly remember an exercise about listening. One volunteer was the talker and the other couldn’t talk, they just had to listen. It taught me that you don’t need to say anything back sometimes, just listening is enough.” 

Siobhan and Arthur were matched in March and since then Siobhan has been visiting Arthur at home once or twice per week for a couple of hours.  

Arthur says:  

“Siobhan really is a lovely girl. She’s like the granddaughter I never had! I always look forward to her visits and she’s a delight. We spend a lot of time just chatting.  

“We also both really like films. I have a huge cabinet full of DVDs and we often talk about films. There’s sometimes crossover in our tastes and I’ll tell Siobhan about films that I think she’ll like so she can go and look them up. We sometimes watch a film when she visits, too.”  

Both Siobhan and Arthur get a lot out of the friendship they’ve developed over the months.

Siobhan says:  

“We really have become friends over the past few months and I get a great deal out of visiting Arthur. There is a big age gap between us and on the face of it people might question what we have in common or what we’d have to talk about. But we never stop talking! Arthur has so much life experience that I can benefit from. I love hearing about how things were in the past and the things he’s done during his life – the jobs he’s had and the things he’s interested in, like sports. I learn so much from him and get a lot of satisfaction from knowing that I am making a difference in his life.” 

Arthur adds:  

“It’s lovely to know that Siobhan is coming to see me each week and we have that time just to chat and socialise. I have some other visitors like the warden at my block of flats and the lady who helps with my shopping, but I know when Siobhan comes round she’s here for a few hours and it’s a purely social visit.”