Kirsty’s life story interview

WILL: So, what kind of stuff did you like to do as a child? Did you have any hobbies or anything like that you like to do?

KIRSTY: Playing with dolls, playing outside, that sort of thing.

WILL: And that ‘playing with dolls’ thing has obviously continued.

KIRSTY: Yeah

WILL: Love the line up. Do you have a favourite?

KIRSTY: Lucy Doll.

WILL:  Lucy Doll. How long have you had her?

KIRSTY: Sorry. I’ve had her a long time.

WILL: You’ve obviously taken good care of her. She looks in good nick.

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Was that a gift or did you buy it for yourself or was it made?

KIRSTY: I got it given off somebody.

WILL: Do you know who gifted you it?

KIRSTY: When I went to a mental health hospital because I wasn’t very well. Somebody, a patient called Ashley, give it, give it to us because she’s going to chuck her out and I spoke up and said that I’ll take her.

WILL: Oh. That’s really nice. And you obviously care a lot about it by the fact that you brought it here.

KIRSTY: Yeah.  I didn’t want to see her go in the bin. So, I spoke up and said, “I’ll take her and look after her.”

WILL: Yeah, it would be a shame for something like that to go in the bin, wouldn’t it? Did you have any pets? That’s always a fun one.

KIRSTY: No.

WILL: No? No pets?

KIRSTY: No pets.

WILL: Have you ever had a pet?

KIRSTY: No.

WILL: Do they allow pets here?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

JOANNE, SW: We can do, yes.

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Oh, that might be something to look into, then.

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Did you have sort of a favourite doll when you were younger?

KIRSTY: I used to have a pink lion.

WILL: What was its name? Did it have a name?

KIRSTY: It was just called Pink Lion.

WILL: Creative name. At school, did you have any favourite subjects or anything like that?

KIRSTY: Art.

WILL: Art. Do you still do a lot of art?

KIRSTY: Sometimes.

WILL: Sometimes. What do you like to do? Do you like to sort of make things, paint or…?

KIRSTY: Bit of both.

WILL:  Bit of both, bit of everything.

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Yeah, what’s your favourite pantomime?

KIRSTY: We went to see Snow White last year, didn’t we, Jo?

JOANNE, SW: We did, yeah.

WILL: Do you like that?

KIRSTY: Do you remember I said to you when you came in and you got dressed in the dark? I said you looked like a clown because you had too big circles and brush up.

WILL: Do you go every year?

KIRSTY: Most years.

WILL: Most years.

JOANNE, SW: What we’re going to see this year, do you know?

KIRSTY: I don’t know.

JOANNE, SW: I thought it was Peter Pan. Peter Pan. But yeah.

WILL: Where do you go? Do you go somewhere near or do you go in a town or?

JOANNE, SW: Do you know which one it’s called. The Tynemouth one, isn’t it?

KIRSTY: Theatre Royal, is it?

JOANNE, SW: Yeah, Theatre Royal. I couldn’t remember what it’s called.

WILL: Yeah, is that a bit further up…

KIRSTY: On Christmas Eve, I’m always really excited.

WILL: It’s a bit further up than Tynemouth, isn’t it? Is it close to Whitley Bay?

JOANNE, SW: Yeah.

WILL: Yeah.

KIRSTY: On Christmas Eve, the staff make one exception, where I’m allowed to go in the car in my pyjamas and we drive in the dark. On the night time, we quite like during the night on Christmas Eve, we drive in the dark and then I get out of the car and like stop where there’s some lights and then I have my picture taken with the lights on and get back in the car and then we go for a drive in. Come back and have picky tea, then by the time that happens, 9 o’clock the handover happens where the night staff come in and then I have hot chocolate and squirty cream and marshmallows. And then if I’m not tired after that, I stay up in here and I watch TV. And then I go to bed when I’m ready, then when I go to bed, go to sleep and then wake up the next day, it’s Christmas Day. And then see around- is it 7 o’clock if I’m allowed to open presents?

JOANNE, SW: Yeah.

KIRSTY: 7 o’clock, I’m allowed to open presents. I’m always saying to the staff, “is it 7 o’clock? is it 7 o’clock yet?” because I can’t really tell the time, I haven’t got much time conception. So, I have to ask what time it is.

WILL: Would you be opening them like the second you woke up if it were up to you?

KIRSTY: Yeah, I would.

WILL: (LAUGHS)

JOANNE, SW: Two o’clock in the morning.

KIRSTY: (LAUGHS)

WILL: Do you have like favourite Christmas song that you like to listen to every year?

KIRSTY: I like When Santa Got Stuck up the Chimney.  It’s Lucy’s favourite. Do you like it, Lucy?

LUCY DOLL: Yes.

WILL: She likes it. Is it her favourite as well?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: What about a Christmas film?

KIRSTY: I don’t like Home Alone. I say I’m scared of it because I don’t find it funny. Like what’s funny about like someone having a nail shoot through their foot and stuff? I don’t find it funny. Sorry. It’s not funny though, is it? It just gives young kids stupid ideas about things.

WILL: So that’s definitely a least favourite for you, then?

KIRSTY: Least favourite, yeah.

WILL: Do you have one that you really like?

JOANNE, SW: Do you like the…

KIRSTY: I like the Snowman.

WILL: Oh, the Snowman. You’ve got to watch every year. My favourite’s Muppets Christmas Carol.

KIRSTY:  I like… oh, what’s the one where…? You know the train one.

WILL: The Polar Express.

KIRSTY: The Polar Express.

WILL: Yeah. You like that?

JOANNE, SW: I like that one as well.

WILL: What about Christmas dinner? That’s my favourite part of it. Do you have a Christmas dinner?

KIRSTY: Yeah, Lucy what do you like? Roast potatoes, chicken, Yorkshires, carrots, basically all the veg. I’m a big veg eater.

WILL: Who cooks it? Do the support staff cook it?

KIRSTY: Yeah, I cook it with support. I cook it.

WILL: Oh, you cook it? That’s great.

KIRSTY: The staff help us cook it and staff will take the chicken out of the oven because that’s the most dangerous part, the staff take the chicken out of the oven, so I don’t scar myself.

WILL: So, have you… Do you like to cook or is it only on Christmas? Is that the only occasion?

KIRSTY: I don’t mind cooking. It’s like, say if it’s a boiling hot day, like, we’re cooking a like. I start sweating that, it really gets to us because I don’t like the heat.

WILL: No, I don’t like the heat either. Do you- [Are you] one of the people in summer that have a fan on all the time and all the windows open?

KIRSTY: Yeah. Excuse me.

WILL: Do you have a favourite sort of dish to cook or to eat really? But not on Christmas. You can say Christmas dinner if you like. I won’t judge you.

KIRSTY: Lucy, what do you like?

LUCY DOLL: Chicken dinner at Christmas. All the trimmings.

WILL: All the trimmings. Do you have like stuffing and roast potatoes? Cabbage?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Broccoli? All that?

KIRSTY: Lucy, what’s your favourite pudding that my mam brings? Lucy?

LUCY DOLL: Christmas pudding. I like it with pouring cream or squirty cream.

WILL: Do you have family over here at Christmas or do you go there?

KIRSTY: My mam, just my mam, comes on Christmas Day.

WILL: Your mum. Are you close with your mum?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Do you talk a lot?

KIRSTY: Very close, yeah, we talk A lot. Every Monday on the phone.

WILL: So, how long have you been in this house here?

JOANNA, SW: I think, do you remember or not?

KIRSTY: No.

JOANNA, SW: Is it about 9, 10 years, isn’t it? I think so. It’s about 10 or 9 years, isn’t it?

KIRSTY: Yeah, I think so. (YAWNS). Sorry, excuse me.

WILL: No, that’s fine. So how did sort of moving into here come about? Like how did you find out about…?

KIRSTY: I was sectioned again. I was really poorly. And then the, what’s the word again,  when I had the meeting for the first to come here? The transfer?

JOANNA: Oh, the interaction transfer.

KIRSTY: Transfer, yeah.

WILL: Is that when United Response came into the picture?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: So how was your life changed from being in here? Because I mean…

KIRSTY: Really, really good.

WILL: Yeah?

KIRSTY: So, I’m going on holiday tomorrow.

WILL: Do you want to tell us a bit more about it? You said you’ve been there before, whereabouts is it?

KIRSTY: Haggerston Castle, whereabouts is it, Jo?

JOANNA SW: It’s up Northumberland.

KIRSTY: Up Northumberland.

WILL: OK. I’ve been there before, it’s really nice.

KIRSTY: The only thing I’m not looking forward to about my holidays, like the fact that I can’t have any fizzy drinks, I mean, and I miss not being able to drink pop at the minute because I love drinking Diet Coke and stuff, but because I had my tooth extracted yesterday. They said, “no fizzy drinks, nothing extremely hot or cold, nothing with bits in it, like there’s no food with bits in it”. And what was the other thing they said? Was that it?

JOANNA: I think that’s it. Yeah.

KIRSTY: That’s it.

WILL: Yeah, that’s a lot of restriction there, isn’t it?

KIRSTY: They said soft foods… the staff said, “soft boiled eggs, salads, jacket potatoes and things, but obviously let it cool down to say not too hot”. Because when I last had a tooth extracted, I didn’t let the food cool down properly and I ended up with dry socket and it was really painful. I was outside screaming in the middle of the night for help. It was really painful. I couldn’t get to sleep with the pain. It was just throbbing in my mouth.

WILL:  That’ll certainly teach you a lesson though, won’t it? You won’t let that happen again. So is that why you had porridge this morning then?

KIRSTY: Yeah, well, I put extra milk on the top of it to cool it down.

WILL:  Hmm… So, when did you last go away on holiday? Do you go on many? Do you go on not that many?

KIRSTY: Jo?

JO, SW: I think once a year or twice a year.

KIRSTY: Once a year, twice a year.

JO: There were a lot of different stuff now, didn’t you? Have you been to… Is it the Shiva Centre? Is there a pool? Have you been to that recently?

KIRSTY: I know everything I’m getting for Christmas as well this year.

WILL: That’s really cool.

KIRSTY: Lucy’s getting a dress, but she doesn’t know.

WILL: Shh… hush… Cut that out of the recording.

LUCY DOLL: What was that?

WILL: Cut that out of the recording, shush. Spoiling presents.

WILL: What do you think your favourite holiday you’ve ever been on was, if you had to pick one?

KIRSTY: Haggerston Castle.

WILL: Yeah, the last time?

KIRSTY:  Yeah. Last time I went to Haggerston Castle, I sat on the edge of the bed and I fell through it.

WILL:(HOLDING IN HIS LAUGH)

KIRSTY: (LAUGHING) I fell through the bed at Haggerston Castle.

BOTH: (LAUGHING)

WILL:  How did you even manage that?

JO, SW: We tried to rescue…

KIRSTY: Yvonne joined. She ran in and she went… [MUTED] And she said, “it’s a good job-” Wendy.Wendy Jolly, who’s one of the staff, said “it’s a good job”. She said it’s a good job she had a tool with her. Good job. Otherwise they would have charged us for the bed.

BOTH: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW: It was funny.

WILL: Oh, God. So, do support staff go with you when you go on holiday then?

KIRSTY: Yeah.

WILL: Yeah? Who’s going with you this time?

KIRSTY: Yvonne and Molly.

WILL: You’ve got two with you. Are you going with anybody else or is it just you and the support staff?

KIRSTY:  It’s me and the support staff.

WILL: Oh, that’s nice.

KIRSTY: (YAWNS)

WILL: Is there anywhere you’d like to go on holiday in the future that you haven’t been already?

KIRSTY: I don’t know.

WILL: You don’t know? Is it sort of the staff that think up where to go? Or is it you?

KIRSTY: Me and the staff.

WILL:  You and the staff. Do you sit down together and have a look and read through places?

KIRSTY:  Yeah. I was on the edge of the bed. I was hung on the edge of the bed when I fell through it and the staff had to come pull us out of the bed.

WILL: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW: It’s a pity you don’t have a picture or a video of it.

WILL:  Yeah, really.

KIRSTY: I had no clothes on, Jo, man.

JO SW: Oh, did you not? Oh, sorry.

JO, SW: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW: I’m sorry.

WILL: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW:  I thought you was dressed. no, we won’t like a picture of that then.

JO, SW: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW: Sorry, Kirsty.

WILL: (LAUGHING)

JO, SW:  I thought you’d got up like out of bed and then fell through it with pyjamas on.

KIRSTY: No, I went to lean on the edge of the bed and put my underwear on and then I fell through.

JO: Oh my God. Oh God. Very funny story though, Kirsty, isn’t it? At least you’re laughing.

KIRSTY: Was he pumping?

WILL: What a sight to come into. I mean, wow.

KIRSTY: Was he pumping, man? You getting video? You getting recorded? You pumping?

KIRSTY: Lucy, hold your baby.

WILL: I’d love to hear more about these dolls that you’ve got lined up here, these babies. Would you like to tell us a bit more…

KIRSTY: Lucy, careful.

WILL: …about them, where you got them, stuff like that?

KIRSTY: Mum ordered them off Temu.

WILL:  Have you had them not that long, quite a while, or…?

KIRSTY: I’ve got some of them on my birthday and then some of them for Christmas.

WILL: How many are there in total? Have you got one there as well?

KIRSTY: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

WILL: Do you have a favourite one?

KIRSTY: No.

WILL: No. All equal?

KIRSTY: This one’s a cute one, but one with the bumblebee.

WILL: Do you buy different outfits for them or do you keep them in what they come in?

KIRSTY: Keep them in what they come in.

WILL: Do you have any more that aren’t in here today?

KIRSTY: Yeah, in my room.