Ticking More Than One Box (And Looking for Henry the Cat)
By David Skinner – 23/06/2023
Discussions about the campus often rely on distinctions between different categories of people: scientists, NHS workers, patients and carers, locals, and so on. But many people have lives and histories that defy neat distinctions between these types and experiences: they tick more than one box.
Wandering the campus with Sue in March 2023 I was reminded how longstanding and varied people’s relationships with the campus can be. Sue has lived in a house a short cycle or a fifteen-minute walk from the campus since 1990 when she also began working on the site as a research scientist. Sue later retrained and worked for the NHS in the genetic counselling service between 2004 and 2018 also based on the site. In the period leading up to and since her retirement in 2018, Sue’s life increasingly involved caring for elderly relatives, supporting them through hospital admissions and clinic visits in Cambridge.
[When I showed Sue a draft of this piece she added: I had my kids here, operations here, as well as managed parents’ health and deaths here so it’s like part of the family.]
We entered the campus via the road leading to the main Addenbrookes entrance, this prompted a discussion about accessibility. Dropping someone ill or disabled at the day hospital or Accident and Emergency was a logistical challenge that ideally required two carers. As Sue remarked, people often found the process of arrival at the hospital disorientating. This confusion contrasted with the ease with which Sue weaved through the main hospital building, making a quick coffee stop, en route to the other side of the campus.
Henry the Cat Poster: Photo by David Skinner March 2023
Sue’s familiarity with the hospital reflects her long and varied experience of it. As we passed the through the main concourse, she had comments about many of the concessions there: how her mum had loved browsing in the clothes shop, how handy it was to have a Body Shop on site if you were at work and needed a last-minute gift, and how pupils from the local sixth form college often visited Burger King.
Sue suggested we try and meet Henry a much-loved cat who spends a lot of time at the hospital. We were unlucky, Henry was not in his usual spot sitting on or close to a bin just inside a side door entrance. The possibility that Henry would make an appearance was clearly a much-appreciated feature of Addenbrookes for some staff and visitors. A notice attached to the door [since removed] purported to speak for Henry, noting that he “had a loving family nearby” it asked us not to feed him. People should, however, “feel free to give me as many cuddles as you like.”
“Be assured I am no stray and am well looked after and cared for even though I spend a lot of time in and around the hospital.”
Sue may have missed out on a reunion with Henry but as we continued our walk, we soon bumped into an ex-colleague from the genetic counselling service in the process of locking her bicycle, further confirming the impression that we were touring Sue’s village. An interesting chat about developments on the campus ensued.
[ Sue later added a comment about the NHS staff gym and social club on the site: I didn’t mention it because we didn’t walk around that bit but the Frank Lee Centre was a big part of my life on the site. Not only for regular exercise but as a place to meet people from outside my own working environment. I still go there regularly and meet a lot of the same people in classes that I have exercised with over the last 32 years.]
Sue’s working life had involved several relocations across the expanding campus via various temporary and supposedly temporary homes. She had initially worked in a laboratory inside the main hospital building. These older facilities were not purpose-built and would expand and contract depending on funding and other demands on space. Her group later moved to the then brand-new Wellcome Building. There had been a similar experience with the genetic counselling service which moved from a basement to portacabins and then to the new Treatment Centre. In each of her careers Sue had moved from cramped and less than ideal conditions to a spacious, new building with new standards of cleanliness and comfort, new equipment, and new catering arrangements but as Sue pointed out, over time the buildings filled up with people and quite quickly started to show their age. I wondered if this was a common cycle for scientists and staff on such a fast-developing site, moving from cramped to more purpose-built facilities but then having to adapt to increasing demands on space. Sue sees this as a ‘natural’ and positive consequence of success and growth.
Walking with Sue entailed stops and detours, as you would expect from someone so connected to place. But for all Sue’s familiarity with parts of the site it was notable that when we did finally arrive at the newer part of the campus, she was a little disorientated by the evident scale and pace of change. Looking back towards the Addenbrookes skyline she struggled to decide where the older part of the campus that she knew so well began or ended.
[A final addition from Sue: We didn’t talk about it but it was a big plus for me as a scientist and a genetic counsellor that there were so many labs on site both in the main hospital and at Institutes like the LMB and the Wellcome building as it meant access to expertise, seminars, conference facilities and collaborations. So I can imagine that the expansion will provide an even better environment for scientists in the site.]