Royal hat-trick
WEST Norfolk was a hive of Royal activity this week with the Queen making three visits in two days to delight everyone involved.
Apart from her annual meeting with her "local" Women's Institute on Wednesday, she also visited Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Preservation Trust, at the town's historic Thoresby College, yesterday.
When the Queen officially opened Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital's new 3 million radiology suite she saw an old debt repaid – in bananas.
During the Second World War, when she was just four, patient and former hospital worker Betty Hyde (69) was recovering in hospital in Lewisham, London, from a shrapnel wound when she met the Queen Mother and was given two bananas – one for her and one for her younger sister.
She was told the bananas, so rare at the time that she had never seen one before, had been passed on from the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret for a deserving child.
Yesterday Mrs Hyde met the Queen in the new scanning suite, having just had a scan herself, told her the story and handed her two bananas as a thank you for that act of kindness so long ago.
Mrs Hyde, of Common Road, Runcton Holme, said: "I just gave her the bananas and said 'they are to return the compliment'. She said 'that's very nice of you'.
"We didn't see bananas during the war. I got two because I had a little sister, one for her and one for me, but she didn't like it and has never liked bananas since!"
Mrs Hyde said finally meeting the Queen was really something to remember, adding: "She was a really lovely lady with a soft face, like her mum."
The Queen made her way through the hospital, named after her mother but of which she is now patron, meeting many groups of staff, ranging from consultants to domestics, and some very special patients along the way.
Lynn News Super Kid Rachel Glass (13) was there with her family to present The Queen with a yellow posy of her favourite freesias.
Rachel works hard to raise money for the hospital and help other children overcome their fears, despite suffering chronic illness herself.
Rachel, of South Creake, said: "She asked me if I had been a patient here for many years and I said 'yes, I've been here since I was two and told her I've been doing lots of fundraising events."
Domestic supervisor Chris Keiller, who has been at the hospital 27 years, and supervisor porter Keith Wagg also got to meet her.
Mrs Keiller said: "It was a nice thing to be able to meet her.
"She was a lot smaller than I realised. I think she appreciates what we do."
Mr Wagg added: "She talked to us about how busy the hospital is."
The climax of the visit came with a tour of the new scanning suite where the Queen got to see two new CT scanners, costing 550,000 each, in action.
The scanners give radiology consultants the equivalent of X-ray vision to see internal organs in minute detail.
Recovering cancer patient Mrs Karen Cameron, of Walpole St Andrew, who is about to launch a new free beauty pampering scheme for fellow patients at the hospital, was scanned while the Queen looked on.
She said: "It was a privilege."
Before leaving the hospital the Queen unveiled a plaque marking the day and signed a portrait of herself to be displayed in the scanning suite.
Interim chief executive Ms Rowena Barnes said she was delighted the Queen had accepted the invitation.
She told the Lynn News: "We are very lucky and very grateful she is our patron and because she stays so locally we really feel she is part of our hospital. We do see her on occasion when she comes to see members of staff who are sick."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
