Heartbeat January 2019

NHS Hero: Lead Chaplain,
Mary Causer
Our organisation is full of remarkable,
motivated people, who give a lot to the
communities we serve. Since 2014, we
have been recognising our quiet heroes
who come from a wide variety of
backgrounds, and do a wide variety of
jobs across our organisation. Each week
we shine a spotlight on one of those
heroes, and following an interview by
our press office the Sandwell Chronicle
publishes these inspirational stories.
In Heartbeat this month, we feature our
new Lead Chaplain, Mary Causer, who has
taken over the position from Ann Stevens
who retired in October.
It was one of the most poignant moments
that Rev Mary Causer has faced during her
time working within the NHS.
As a new chaplain, she was asked to marry
an end-of-life care patient to his long- term
girlfriend at City Hospital, Birmingham.
“I had just started working at the Trust and
was asked to marry a beautiful couple,”
explained mum-of-one Mary, aged 51.
“The patient very ill but wanted to carry out
this one final act with his partner.
“It was a sacred moment that was an
important part of the process for him and
his wife because they had been together for
a while.”
Mary, who has worked for our organisation
Lead Chaplain, Mary Causer
for over two years, added: “I had to organise
the legal side of the marriage, and also be
the emotional support - which was all a
new experience to me. The ward team were
amazing throughout and helped to decorate
his room where we held the ceremony.
“The patient sadly passed away soon
afterwards, but I have kept in touch with his
wife and she is very grateful that she was
able to say her vows to her husband and it
be witnessed by her family and friends.”
Working within the NHS is certainly a big
change from Mary’s previous job.
She recalled: “I had come from working as
a chaplain in a category A prison, so there
was a big difference in the type of people I
was working with.
“But I really enjoy being here. My hope is
that wherever I am across the Trust, I can
make someone smile. I like making people
Paul leads the charge on
Fizz-Free February
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laugh, but it’s also about being
in the right place at the right time for
those people who need more direct
spiritual input.
“The chaplaincy is incredibly important
and I see that my congregation isn’t a
church, but a whole Trust.
“There is no typical day for me because
we offer a bespoke service for patients,
their families and colleagues and I offer
faith to those who are seeking it.”
Mary decided to become a chaplain
after studying theology at college. She
had been invited to sing at a prison and
during this she saw how the chaplain
worked and it appealed to her.
She said: “I didn’t really know what I
wanted to do whilst I was at college,
but singing at the prison helped me to
come to a decision and I haven’t looked
back since.”
In her spare time Mary likes watching
murder mysteries and also sprucing up
her garden. So who is Mary’s hero? “It
has to be Emmeline Pankhurst – she had
no fear and she had a conscience that
she lived out, making changes not just
for England but across the world.”
At the start of next month our deputy
chief nurse will be spearheading our
involvement in Fizz Free February – a
campaign to get young people to
reduce or cut out their intake of fizzy
drinks, many of which have extremely
high sugar content.
The campaign is being run by a number
of local authorities across the country,
including Sandwell, and has the full
support of local MP Tom Watson who lost a
dramatic amount of weight in 2018.
Our Deputy Chief Nurse, Paul Hooton,
has committed our support to this vital
campaign and throughout the month, he
will be working alongside our children’s
services to get this important message out
to school-aged young people.
Paul said: “I was privileged to meet Tom
Watson recently who talked about his
very inspirational health journey. We may
not realise it, but fizzy drinks make up an
average of 29 per cent of daily sugar intake.
If you drink a can of coke every day for a
month you will eat the equivalent of a bag
of sugar. Fizzy drinks are also the largest
single source of sugar for children aged
eleven to eighteen. So if we’re going to get
serious about childhood obesity, it starts
with fizzy pop.”
Deputy Chief Nurse, Paul Hooton is leading
the Fizz-Free February campaign
The hard truth about soft drinks:
• You can save £438 a year if you
stopped drinking one bottle of soft
drink, per day for a year
• Drinking just one 330ml can of fizzy
drink a day could add up to over a
stone weight gain per year
• 79 per cent of fizzy drinks contain 6
or more teaspoons of sugar per can
(330ml)
• Tooth decay is the leading cause for
hospitalisation among 5-9 year olds
in the UK, with 26,000 children
being hospitalised each year due to
tooth decay – in other words, 500
each week
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