Eddie K: security team leader

Everybody has a story. Meet Eddie K from Whittington Hospital who is the force behind the annual get-together celebration event – mixing music, inspirational talks and the best Afro-Caribbean food – run during Black History Month. Interview by Nicola Baird

Walking from reception past the café at Whittington Hospital can be a lonely experience, but following Eddie K to the staff canteen is a revelation because it feels like everyone has a greeting for him. That’s because Eddie has worked at Whittington Hospital for the past 20 years and is someone known to go the extra mile for colleagues.

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Eddie started as a security officer and is now running the team which means an alternating day and night working four 12-hour shifts on, four off. Eddie, surely the youngest looking 40-something man in Archway, is also well-known in the hospital for his Black History Month gatherings: the 2019 party is on Friday 25 October from 5-8pm with inspirational speakers, a poet, Afro-Caribbean food, music and dance. It’s a free event for NHS staff which aims to “celebrate the enormous contribution Black Britons have made to the UK and at Whittington Health”.

The annual event is such a big deal that last year Eddie was nominated, and subsequently short-listed, as an Unsung Hero during the NHS Windrush 70 awards which involved a celebratory trip to the awards in Manchester. That year also marked the 70th anniversary of the NHS, one of the things Whittington Health did to celebrate the occasion was to recognise 70 of their staff, who were nominated by colleagues, managers and patients for their amazing work. Just by a giant image of the hospital’s famous cat (the one made from multi-coloured swifts next to the shop), there’s a fabulous pink plaque celebrating Eddie with a quote from his nomination. It says: “Eddie Kent works as a security officer who always displays care, compassion and is always kind to everybody. He’s friendly and approachable and would even risk his life for the sake of the staff.”

Eddie was born in Hackney and has lived in Tottenham since he was three.  “Mum was from Barbados and Dad from Grenada and they came to London in the late ‘50s, early 60s. There was a lot of racism in London then. I remember as a small child in the 1970s signs in some pubs saying, ‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish.’ And there was the National Front. It was unnerving.”

Eddie has some treasured memories too: “during the late 1980s we were pioneers of the raves. We’d hire a generator and put in the back garden of a derelict building and run parties (raves). You got to listen to exclusive stuff that the commercial radio stations wouldn’t play – they didn’t really play Black music,” he says.

Eddie’s big passion is Reggae. Initially he was “offered a job on the hospital radio station,” but turned it down for security work because, “I’d just lost my mum and had a lot going on so I wasn’t ready. I nearly gave up music. Then I decided to join Whittington Radio and just do a Reggae show, there’d been nothing like it in hospital radio. After a year and a half  I was ready to launch in 2006.”

Eddie’s first show began with Musical Youth and was a big success. “People watched my show. Twice a week I’d go and visit a ward and visit patients. I’d give away CDs I even visited patients on Christmas day. The following year he did another big show which staff packed in to watch. “A senior member of staff came to see what was going on and I was told ‘you can’t launch it again’.” Turned out that Eddie hadn’t done anything wrong, he was being offered the chance to run an event in the restaurant. The event coincided with the hospital building a new ward, named Mary Seacole, after the pioneering Crimea nurse, and was during Black History Month.

As a result, Whittington Health, which employs more than 4,500 staff, has let Eddie run this popular event for Black History Month since 2007.  Over the years, acts have included many of Eddie’s friends from dancers to rappers, talks on health and wellbeing, drummers, displays from Islington Boxing Club and more adventurous stand-ups including the London Fire Brigade. “People say it’s fantastic. What have you got this year,” says Eddie admitting that 2019 will have stalls with people selling African bags, health stand for sickle cell and prostate and a one hour show that’s followed by a free meal of the best Afro-Caribbean food including jerk chicken, curried goat, rice and peas, African-style Jollof rice and maize.

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Places Eddie K likes in Islington

• The Finsbury Park drummers are very happy-go-lucky. One of the drummers was a great friend of mine so they’d come and play at the show.
• I’m a big fan of Upper Street. If I have to go out, I go there. It’s lovely and so much going on. I like Rodizo Rico, 76 Upper Street, where you sit down and they keep bringing you cuts of meat until you turn over a red card.
• I went to watch Marley (2012) about Bob Marley’s life at Screen on the Green, 83 Upper Street. It was the greatest experience: I’d never been to a cinema with a bar and sofas.

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Work life
The Whittington is a busy place. The A&E department (or ED for emergency department as the staff call it) was built to handle 55,000 people. Last year 108,000 were treated – an increase from 101,000 the year before. Eddie’s job for Whittington Health means that he knows every area of the hospital well either via regular security patrols or responding to emergency calls. “We’re the dads and we’re everything: we’re trying to solve problems caused by someone on drink or drugs, patients admitted for mental health problems via a Section 136 or two people arguing in the labour ward,” he says. Shockingly Eddie admits that he’s “been hit too many times,” during his work. Thankfully that doesn’t stop him mostly enjoying his job or planning each year’s Black History Month event.

It was terrific meeting Eddie K, and here’s wishing everyone at the next Black History Month event at the Whittington a wonderful time. Thank you to everyone there for everything you do for Islington. And as Eddie suggests if things get tough – or you’re feeling unwell – nothing beats playing Bob Marley’s One Love, because Everything’s going to be alright…

• Black History Month is held every October. Look out for events and displays in Islington, especially at schools and the libraries.

 

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola