Winston’s £30,000 goal for Children In Need

Sometimes we place too much significance on round numbers, perfect symmetry and full circles.

However, for Winston Gilmore, who after 29 years of charity work has raised £27,800 for Children in Need, it would seem a shame not to let this human craving for completeness be the standard by which his big anniversary fundraising target is set.

In other words, to commemorate this excellent 30-year milestone, Winston wants to hit the £30,000 threshold.

The Fintona man has been doing an annual collection for Chrildren in Need since the mid 1990s – a charitable tradition that began about ten years into his job as a storekeeper clerk in the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital.

The world at that time was a different place: Ireland was different. Omagh was a different.

And the semi-secure, partially-walled, largely self-sufficient community comprised of the staff and patients of the then-called ‘mental hospital’ on the outskirts of the county town was extremely different.

“When I first got a job in the store, there were still a lot of people in the Tyrone and Fermanagh who would be there until the day they died.

“I suppose that was the lingering legacy of the Omagh District Lunatic Asylum.

“People often went in without any real chance of getting out.”

Before moving onto the origins of Winston’s charity work, we dwelt on those early years for another few minutes.

“Some patients would have been admitted for very little. I knew one fella that was put in for breaking windows.

“I remember another who before being admitted had been forced to live in a hen coup.

“He used to sit hunched over and peck at the ground.

“It was so sad.

“But those were the kind of things you seen, you know,” recalled Winston.

He went onto describe a headmaster who was admitted and died in the hospital.

He remembered one patient who was responsible for keeping the store calendars correct by stroking off the previous day’s date.

And he recalled how some less unwell patients would help work the many acres that surrounded the grounds.

“A lot of the food used to feed patients and staff was produced on-site.

“Most weeks, for example, a butcher would come and slaughter an animal, then that meat would be used throughout the different facilities: The County Hospital, the General Hospital, the Tyrone and Fermanagh, Gortmore and Conneywarren.”

Anyway, it was while working in the supply store, which was the place were all orders for the various aforementioned facilities were sorted and dispensed, that Winston noticed how some extra cash could make a difference.

“Nurses would put in orders for clothes, equipment and other things needed by patients, and, a lot of the time, their requisitions would be declined.

“The Western Trust simply didn’t have the money to go around.

“It was then that myself and my good friend and hospital porter Keith Donnell decided we’d do a charity collection around all the different departments.

“We got everything authorised, rented costumes, got a few buckets and went to work.

“That first year we raised £181… The fact we spent half our time running around the wards having the craic with patients probably cut into our productivity,”

The following year, Keith stepped away, making space for Roy Graham, who for the next 25 years served as Winston’s right hand man; his brother in altruistic arms.

“Roy and I loved the craic of the whole thing.

“We enjoyed interacting with the patients and staff.

“We loved the smiles on the children’s faces as we stuck our buckets through the car windows. We loved knowing that the money we were making was being used to help children across Northern Ireland.”

Winston still works in the store, providing clothes, equipment, cleaning materials and just about everything else required by staff and patients across the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital and Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex.

In the next few years, though, he will be eligible for retirement.

“I was thinking that it would make sense to stop at 30 years – a nice round number. But then I thought, why? Why not keep raising money while I am able to?

“So that’s the plan now, I think. If God spares me, I’ll keep doing it.”

Winston, dressed as a dog and accompanied by Pudsey Bear, will be outside Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex from about 7.30am to 5pm on Tuesday, November 12. Pay him a visit and donate kindly. Let’s try get him to £30,000 in 30 years.