Some patients and carers spoke of the changes they had observed in rural areas, changes that had sometimes undermined the sense of community and availability of help. One woman who had recently moved from a hamlet to an urban flat regretted what had happened to her former area of residence:
Female patient: There were four houses and if you were ill you could always send for somebody and they’d pop up. We’d help each other out. Well, all those houses have gone now they’re all holiday homes and private and everybody’s moved away…
In her present residence, reliance on support from neighbours was not a possibility:
My neighbours here, they’re nice neighbours, but up there’s an estate with big families. A. [in the flat] underneath has had a stroke, so he doesn’t work, there is one big lad who’s thirty and on his own next door upstairs, there is an old man who’s not very good downstairs. Next to him is a deaf and dumb lady, and she comes and tries to make contact with and talk to you, and then a young lad on his own. They’re very quiet and you don’t see people at all. A. comes up and just has a chat on Sunday before he goes to church. Bless him, he always says ‘how are you?’ because he says prayers at church for me, so somebody’s praying and trying hard. But apart from that we don’t see anybody. They’re not neighbours like we used to have at G. [hamlet]. You couldn’t expect single lads to come in and give me a hand, or an old age pensioner, so-. B6 Age 61, Breast,
Another couple who had lived in the same hamlet all their lives saw changes, but still felt very involved with the local community:
Female patient: The neighbours have been very good. I mean they're always coming in with baking and one thing and another aren't they?
Interviewer: So is this quite a well settled village of people, have people been here a long time or have you known the people a long time?
Patient: Well no, some of them are what you call in-comers, but they're all alright. Male carer: We know everybody. I went to school there where you parked your car. There used to be a village school.
Patient: We know everybody but it's a very scattered place is K. you see. It’s quite a few little settlements, where there'll be as many houses as there is here, with these barn conversions and one thing and another. P 2: K3 Pt1.txt Age 67, Ovary, Lives with husband
One woman who had lived in a medium sized village for 20 years also noted the helpfulness of neighbours:
Female Patient: They’re absolutely over wonderful, if that’s the word. Interviewer: Over wonderful? (laughter)
Patient: They pop in, they see a bit of ironing there it’s whipped away, they don’t ask, oh I’ve taken it, and what shopping do you want, you know. They’re just wonderful. B10 Age 63, Unknown primary, Lives with husband PT1
However, it did not seem necessary to have lived in a place for a long time for neighbours to be helpful in the right setting. This woman had only moved the year before from London to a small village in the Lakes, where she lived alone:
Female patient: I just plan my day and just kind of manage somehow and I have got good neighbours really who pop in. B1Age 50, Lung, Lives alone PT2
Only a few people in the whole sample did not feel their neighbours could help, either through not knowing them, or the neighbour being elderly or frail, and these tended to be located in a town:
Male patient: We don’t really know them very well. I mean they’ve only just been in a month or two and D. next door’s not so good at all, so-
Patient: Seven years. L1 Age 69, Oesophagus, Lives with wife (age 77) PT1
Location in a town, however, did not preclude involvement with the neighbours. For example, a comfortably retired couple described the quiet close they lived in thus:
Male Patient: But all the neighbours, all the neighbours are very good and all. Even though everybody in this street is retired now. They’ve all lived here - just one family across there, who’s moved in about six or seven months ago - but everybody else has lived here over 30 years. Like J. across the road there, they’d just got married, ‘This is our first house, we’ve bought this, but we’re looking for something better later on’. Well they’re still there, the two sons are grown up and married and they’ve got
grandchildren. So we all know one another, and we keep to ourselves most of the time, but when anybody’s in trouble –
Female Carer: They’re there.
Patient: And it was me first in hospital. H. across the road went a couple of weeks ago, now he’s got cancer, so he’s getting treatment, and J. went because he had a man’s thing a fortnight ago – so the three of us have been getting together and having a bit of a laugh about it at times (amusement).
Carer: We’ve got good neighbours this side. This side of us are really good neighbours. They’ve been very supportive – very. And if anything’s wrong, they will come to us, and if there’s anything wrong we will go to them, or without asking they’ve been coming, all the neighbours have. L14 Age 72, Gastric, Lives with wife (age 70) PT1
Another comfortably off couple, however, described less of a sense of community with the neighbours. They lived in a large village, which was situated on either side of a main through road:
Female carer: The neighbours, they’re very good. It’s a strip of road and if you ever have to go to any of the others, it’s not - people said to me, when I moved here, the neighbour next door said we’ve been here over 10 years and we’ve hardly got to know anybody at all. Very, very self-contained, compared to living on an estate where everybody would know each other better, I dare say. They are very good next door. We don’t know the folk further down. I wouldn’t even know them if I met them. But you say, you nod to everybody you meet in the street generally, but I don’t know their names and that.
Carer: Oh yes, for that. It’s not their faults. They all seem to just be people that don’t like to - it’s not proper to intrude and go and invite your neighbours. They’re friendly enough, but they have this inhibition that they don’t like to appear that - it’s
downgrading for them to not call at a house for a specific reason - they wouldn’t drop in to say how are you - it’s just their way. B11 Age 72, Bowel, Lives with wife (Age 70).