Railway enthusiast Lee gets his time with the trains thanks to adult social care

Lee Peedell is railway enthusiast with a difference – he gets his fix with the help of Oxfordshire County Council’s adult social care team.

The 44-year-old from Botley was once a railway volunteer himself and his Grandfather worked for Great Western Railways in the days when steam trains ruled the rails.

“I’ve loved trains for as long as I can remember”, said Lee. “I attend the new daytime support centre in Abingdon but I am driven out to watch trains at Didcot, usually on a Thursday afternoon. We also occasionally go to Oxford or Radley.

“I love steam trains and I saw the Flying Scotsman the other week. I also like the diesels and the freight trains that pass through Oxford, Radley and Didcot. I use an app on my phone to see when the freight trains are due.

“It’s good that we can do this and that the council works with us so that we can enjoy our hobbies.”

Kate Terroni, Director for Adult Social Care said: “The new system of daytime support has given us the ability to be far more flexible in how we support people. Individuals have all kinds of interests, hobbies and past-times and they can often provide perfect ways of offering innovative daytime support.

“Our new model of daytime support provides people with more choice and the ability to be supported to take part in activities that they are passionate about as well as offer the more traditional support, such as group activities within the centres.

“In the case of Lee, he just loves trains. We’ve actually been enabling Lee get to see trains for many years as it always made sense for us to work with his interest and to tailor daytime support for him that involved the railways. That continues as part of the new service that we launched on October 1 and other people are also benefitting from the more flexible approach and are being supported to access a wide range of community activities such as swimming and karate.

“Our support workers drive Lee to local stations like Radley, Didcot or Abingdon – all within reasonable distance of where he lives in Botley. He spends time there watching the different varieties of trains travelling through Oxfordshire. Sometimes we try to time the trip for when a special train of some kind is travelling through and he has a member of our staff with him at all times.