Interview with Carol Shephard, 29 April 2026

00:00:00 Lauren Golding

Hello, I'm Lauren from Discovery and it's the 29th of April 2026 and I'm here with Carol Shephard.

Hello Carol.

00:00:06 Carol Shephard

Hello.

00:00:07 Lauren Golding

Can you please start by telling me what your connection is to Discovery?

00:00:10 Carol Shephard

Okay, so I was a student at the university here in Swansea between 1985 and 89. I was a languages student, so I was away from my third year. But during my second year and my final year, I volunteered on a project called, that was organised by Arts for Disabled People in Wales. I can't really remember what the project itself was called. And I used to come to volunteer every Saturday morning with that project. And also in my final year, I did a Kids Away weekend as well.

00:00:39 Lauren Golding

Lovely.

What were your responsibilities with the Arts for Disabled People project, like what sort of things did you get involved with?

00:00:46 Carol Shephard

So, the point of the project was that it would be integrated, that was the language that was used in the 1980s. So, Arts for Disabled People in Wales worked primarily with disabled people and the person that ran the project at the time said, well I'd really like it to be integrated with non-disabled people as well. And so, as students we went along as participants.

So, there was a small group that organised the days or the mornings, they were Saturday mornings from like 10 to 1 and we would do drama, arts, collage, cooperative games, those kinds of things. But the role of the student at that time was just to turn up and join in enthusiastically. So, we weren't supporting other people, we were just participating as equals with them.

00:01:30 Lauren Golding

Lovely.

What did Discovery look like and sort of feel like during your time? Do you remember what the structure of the organisation was?

00:01:38 Carol Shephard

Oh, that's really interesting.

I remember, at the beginning of the year, they would do a big event like Freshers, during the Freshers Week. So, there would be the SVS, Swansea Student Volunteering Service, which changed its name. I'll never remember which way around it was, but during the time I was there, it changed its name because there was a relaunch, a big sort of relaunch in my final year. And I remember, and I've still got the t-shirt.

And I remember that was a time when some funding came in as well. So there was a guy called John Evans who I was friends with. He was a year younger than me. And he, I know he'd been in America.

So I remember these freshers fair sessions where, the first one I remember because Phil, who is now my husband and his friend Pete, who I worked with for many years, they organised, they were employed to organise kind of getting to know you icebreaker type activities. And I can clearly remember them running games and getting us all talking to each other and moving about and doing some quite crazy things together.

And then what I remember in my final year was going to a workshop with John that was all about songs you can use if you're working with young people in volunteering projects. And I think he'd learned them when he'd been on these camps in America during the summer before.

I remember there was an office, but I don't really think I went there particularly often. You know, probably for Kids Away, I had to go pick up some van keys and hand in a report or I can't really remember, but it certainly wasn't a big office like it is now.

00:03:13 Lauren Golding

Can you tell me a little bit more about your Kids Away trip?

00:03:17 Carol Shephard

Okay, so the main thing I remember, I've always remembered is being given keys to a minibus. And okay, so I would have been 21, maybe 22. I'd learned to drive when I was 17 because that's what everybody did in the 1980s. That was your present for your 17th birthday. But I hadn't driven that much because I'd come to university at 18 and I didn't have a car when I was here, which was also fairly normal. So, you know, I used to drive my dad's car when I was at home.

So, I went off with this minibus driving around Townhill, picking up children with another student volunteer with a map, a paper map. We're trying to find our way up these steep hills and around these network of streets. And then we pile all these children into, into a minibus. And I know I've shown you the photo because when I dug some photos out, I was a bit shocked that they were bench seats in the back of the minibus.

So again, it was completely normal. That's what you did. That's what minibuses were like.

And I can remember driving off down the motorway and that was okay. And then just finding my way around Bristol, which I didn't know very well, and thinking, I've got all these children in the back and I've got this minibus. I hope the other drivers can see it's a student minibus and they assume that I don't know where I'm going.

So that was obviously a bit traumatic for me because I still remember it.

But the other thing I really remember is, is like just doing loads of different things with these young people and them being really up for it. So going to parks, going to the zoo, we went to a beach and played games. We went swimming. I can't believe what we managed to cram into a weekend.

00:05:00 Lauren Golding

Wonderful.

Do you have any other standout memories from your time with SVS?

00:05:07 Carol Shephard

Well, I would say that the Saturday morning workshops, a story that I've told many times, I think just expresses how valuable it was to me. So, I started doing that in my second year. I think the first year everything was a bit overwhelming, but second year you've kind of settled down, you know what time you've got.

So I, and this Saturday morning thing was perfect because I decided I'd take Saturdays off from any university work, but it meant I got up in the morning and went and did something. And I didn't like getting up in the morning particularly. But this project was fun and nourishing and enjoyable enough to make me want to get up and get out on a Saturday morning.

I remember making connections with the local people and particularly with some of the disabled adults that used to come along to that project.

So, I mentioned before I went away during my third year because I was a languages student. And I know when I came back in my final year, I was so anxious, one of the things I wanted to know, I need to go to the Discovery or as it was then, Student Community Action, Freshers Fair thing. Is the arts workshop still going on? Is it still on? Because I knew I wanted to do that again and I wanted to see those people.

And you know, I was trying to remember some names this morning and I know there was Gavin and Tim and James and Barbara who they still stick in my mind. And we were so chuffed to see each other again. So, yeah, I think that gives an idea of how important it was in the big picture of my life at Swansea University.

00:06:52 Lauren Golding

Wonderful.

Could you tell me a bit how your time with SVS has impacted your life afterwards? Have you continued to volunteer? You know, are there any particular skills you've got during that time that you've carried forward?

00:07:06 Carol Shephard

Yeah, definitely volunteering has continued to be an important part of my life. 

I've thought about this before I've come to talk to you and I realised when I was growing up, my dad used to volunteer every week at a gateway club local to where we lived. So that was very normal. My dad had his job during the week and on Saturdays he'd go and do the gateway club and sometimes we would go and help if they needed help for an event or something. So that was sort of part of, I already knew that it was a thing that people did.

And I guess that's what motivated me to find things, something that I might like to do. But yeah, I've been involved with small organisations where sometimes where I've been a volunteer or I've supported other volunteers.

And then the other big story, I guess, is that the person that ran the workshops, was just the person that ran the workshops, but in the years after I was a student, I met that person again and ended up marrying him and I'm still married to him now. So I guess that's a fairly big impact.

00:08:11 Lauren Golding

Definitely.

Wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we finish?

00:08:19 Carol Shephard

Yeah, I suppose what I was thinking about was what others of my friends did and how it was kind of normal that people did some sort of volunteering when they were a student.

So, my best friend, and I think it's very funny, so Rachel was my best friend, we were roommates, and I asked her if she had any memories, because I can remember her going on a Wednesday afternoon to the YMCA and doing some kind of adult literacy project. And when I spoke to her, she said, oh God, I'd forgotten about that. And then they were, but then she remembered they were people who'd come out of prison and had very low literacy skills. And so it was a project that was about supporting that.

So I thought that was quite interesting that to me, that was an important thing, but to her it was, oh, I'd forgotten about that. But then that there are other people who did, who got really, really involved and became project coordinators and things like that as well.

00:09:18 Lauren Golding

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.