A day in the life of Jeniv Shah

Downstairs for breakfast and half an hour of the Jeremy Kyle Show; today Jeremy convinces a 47 year old lady about who’s not worked for 16 years to stop living off the dole and to go out and get a job! Is there nothing Jeremy Kyle can’t do? And good luck to him, although I doubt he’ll find a job as rewarding, in every sense, as that of being a Wesser Fundraiser.

Its five to ten and I just have time for a quick shower and change into my St John Ambulance T-Shirt. It looks warm outside and according to the weather forecast it is likely to be one of the hottest days this year, taking the forecast as accurate I leave my jacket behind, I don’t want to be turning up at peoples’ doors all sweaty now…

Half an hour later and we have arrived at our fundraising destination for the day. My right hand is clenched and inches from knocking on my first door; even though I’ve been doing this job for 6 weeks now I always get butterflies before my first…

10:30am (+15 seconds): They’re not in. Oh well…

A little while later…my first success! A very kind single mother of two is interested in the Mother and Baby Save a Life First Aid scheme and has signed up to donate £36 a year. Fantastic. It was a shame that the remainder of the morning did not continue with quite the same gusto.

It reaches two o’clock and I pick up the rest of the team, being only a short distance down the road we head back to the house for lunch. The usual topic of conversation at this point of the day is about the people who we have met so far…John claims to have met ex-England Rugby coach Andy Robinson’s mum.

Just gone three and we’re off again, but not before Ed, our team leader that is, gives us all some more streets to cover for the evening. Obviously we don’t want to be wasting our time visiting empty houses, so we try to organise the area we need to cover into “daytime” and “evening” areas, maximising our chances of finding people at home.

Later on that afternoon a lovely lady invites me in for a cup of tea. I politely decline (we’re not allowed in!) so she brings me some squash to the door instead. Delightful. We have a great chat, talking for about 20 minutes or so; her daughter is about to go to my university. Despite the time I have spent at this house and even though the lady decides not to donate, it’s always a great morale-booster to meet friendly people, especially on a hot and tiring day like this one.

It is approaching the end of the afternoon and I have had 6 people donate already today, much better than the average for this time. There was the single mother from the morning and then from the afternoon, two elderly couples, an extremely attractive 22-year-old student at Cardiff University, and two mothers each with young children. The art to fundraising is about emphasising how St John can help each individual; I talked about defibrillators and heart attacks with the elderly, how St John provides first aid at concerts and sport events to students, and mother and baby schemes with…well, mothers with babies.

Six o’clock and time for a quick break before the final push of the day, in theory the evening is supposed to be the most productive, more people are at home and therefore the probability of people donating is greater…in theory.

Quarter past eight and only 2 donations in the last two hours; I did say that the evening is supposed to be the most productive in theory only! Still, I would have taken a total of 8 since the start of the day; five more days like this would mean 48 new supporters for the week, which in turn equals big bonuses!

It’s almost half past eight and time to round up the rest of the gang and head home. John’s offered to cook dinner but sets the fire alarm off 4 times in 10 minutes, intuition tells us that we are better off ordering a takeaway pizza instead. The team has had a great day, not our best, but still a great day nonetheless. Between us we’ve amassed 41 new supporters and Emil, our Campaign Coach, is delighted: “You’re really breaking the bank!” he tells our team leader.

Under Siege, with Steven Seagal, is on the box. Excellent. I crack open a well-deserved beer and settle down to enjoy the show.

Jeniv Shah, Somerset Team, Summer 2009