Cascade Summer/Autumn 2012 - Plymouth Hospitals

cascade_summer_2012_1.5:Cascade_Winter_2011 23/10/2012 13:48 Page 23
23Our Olympic Champions
Jayne’s Olympic Journey
At the Olympics I was a technical official. A technical official for the
Olympics is what we would normally call the recorders role so during
the Olympics we’ll be sat at the pool side, the divers will do their
diving and as the scores come in through the computer system we sit
there with specials forms for each diver, write the scores down and
then do all the calculations manually so we’re basically doing a backup
system for the computers. If for any reason there was glitch with
the computers we would be able to continue running the competition
manually, which is really scary!
There were 8 of us in total, I’m the only one from Plymouth, the
majority of the others were from Leeds or Sheffield, all of us do dive
recording for all of the national competitions, I’ve been doing that for
nine years nationally. I got into diving through my children dive, my
son Stephen dived at a national level and I started as a chaperone
and then became a recorder. I now run the diving competitions in
Plymouth with one of the head coaches at Plymouth Diving.
At poolside we were not allowed to show any emotion or react to the dives, that was really tough
because we all know the divers on team GB, we know them really well, and some of the international
divers too.
It’s incredible and we don’t get the opportunity very often to take part in something so huge, an extra
highlight is that we get to go to the opening ceremony, it’s a complete once in a lifetime experience.
My family are so excited that I’ve been offered this chance and they keep reminding me not to
underestimate what an opportunity it is. I feel so lucky, so privileged to be a part of this Olympics, I never
imagined that I’d be that close to it.
The Olympic celebrations weren’t
limited to departments in the Trust…
Emma Parsons and Adrian Rust of
Trebor Maintenance planted an
Olympic welcome outside the main
entrance at Derriford Hospital.
Fracture Clinic and Orthopaedic Outpatients
Led by the ever-keen (and very creative) Paul Hazell,
Orthopaedic Plaster Technician, both Fracture Clinic and
Orthopaedic Outpatients were given Olympic makeovers to mark
the occassion.
Flags of the world and
Team GB bunting
festooned the ceilings
alongside Olympic Rings
and mascots. The team
also screened Olympic
events for the benefit of
patients (and staff) who
passed through the
departments during the
Olympics and
Paralympics.