Bill Oliphant, a Resident residing at HC-One’s
Ashington Grange Care Home, Ashington, Northumberland dreams have come true as he had the pleasure of meeting Sir Geoff Hurst with the help of BT and their companionship programme.
Throughout lockdown BT set up the fantastic Care Home Companions scheme which sees BT customer service advisors using their personable and local communication skills to chat with Residents who might not have anyone else to talk to on a regular basis.
Ricky, a Customer Care Advisor was paired with Bill Oliphant, aged 72, through the companion scheme. They both struck up a friendship in 2020 and have continued having weekly phone calls ever since. The pair forged a bond over their love of football and Bill’s passion for commentating.
Football legend Sir Geoff Hurst joined forces with BT customer service advisor Ricky to make a lifelong football fan’s dream come true, by recreating the most famous goal in England’s history. Bill went to Newcastle United Football Stadium and had a fantastic tour of the grounds and famous changing rooms.
Sir Geoff, 80, helped footie fan Bill Oliphant, 72, commentate his hat-trick goal from the 1966 World Cup Final, with the famous line “They think it’s all over… it is now”. Ricky and Sir Geoff even guided Bill to share the moment through a video call with friends at his care home.
Bill was absolutely over the moon and couldn’t thank Ricky enough for making his dreams come true!
Bill Oliphant, from Ashington Grange Care Home, Northumberland, said:
“Meeting Sir Geoff was a dream come true - I’m a huge football fan and being able to commentate ‘that’ moment was incredible. Even more so because we were able to share it with my friend too.
“I don’t get many visitors at the home anyway and when Covid hit it became more difficult to stay in touch in person.
“Whilst my carers were lovely and took good care of me, I did feel lonely during the pandemic. One of the few people from outside the home that I spoke to regularly was Ricky. We bonded over our love of football, and he’s really given me the confidence to try out new technology that makes things easier for me.”