Narrator: Before people were ready to leave Ely hospital and live in the community, Cardiff University Social Services volunteers spent about 7 years visiting the hospital.

They did things like day trips away from hospital to get used to community life.

Some people got so confident that they could do day trips by themselves.

It was a beautiful hot sunny day, the kind of day that really makes you want to go for a swim.

This is what 2 people who lived in Ely hospital decided they wanted to do on that day.

Steve: Right, do you want to get out hospital? Do you want to get out of it?

Janet: Yes, why not get out of it. It’s a boring old place.

Steve: Do you get bored there, do you?

Janet: Yeah, I get really bored there. I hate it.

Steve: I hate them telling us what to do.

Janet: Yeah let’s just escape through the escape route and get out of the place.

Steve: Let’s go! Let’s sneak out without the staff knowing what we’re doing. Let’s go swimming, it’s a boiling hot day. Shall we go?

Janet: Oh yeah, let’s go swimming then.

Steve: That’s cool, let’s do it. Let’s cool ourselves down.

Narrator: Steve and Janet, they walked out the hospital gates.

(sounds of cars on the road)

Speaker 1: Alright mister?

Janet: Yeah we’ve been busy but finally made it here, without our staff seeing us. We can make it to the leisure centre for swimming now.

(sound of people walking outside)

Steve: We have to find a bus stop, and we’ve got to be quick so we don’t get caught.

There’s a bus coming, quick – go quick so we get it. Quick, we don’t want to miss it, so we stick together.

Janet: Okay let’s get on this one and see if it goes to the leisure centre

Steve: Hello driver, does this bus go to the swimming pool?

Bus driver: Yes, it goes straight to the leisure centre. It will be about 10 minutes. Is that alright, mate?

Steve: The trouble is, me and my friend don’t got no money on us today, sorry.

Narrator: Because it was a nice sunny day, he let them on anyway.

Bus driver: Ah don’t worry about the money. I’ll pay for you mate, just get on.

Steve: Hey, thank you very much!

Janet: We’re going to the leisure centre!

Steve: Thanks to the bus driver, we got a free ride to the swimming pool.

Janet: Yeah, it’s amazing. Now we get to have a nice swim.

Steve: Nice swim

Janet: And we didn’t get caught

Steve:…they don’t know what we’re doing

Narrator: They decided to walk to the back of the bus and sat down by the window. They were still feeling very pleased with themselves at this point.

Janet: Maybe some people like the bus driver might give us free food.

Steve: Ah the trouble, we might not have the same bus driver on the way back is the trouble. They might not be so nice.

Narrator: Then the bus pulled up at the next bus stop. An off-duty hospital worker hopped on the bus.

Steve: There’s that lady from the hospital. She’s one of our staff. What can we do? What if she spots us?

Janet: We’ll just put our heads down and pretend we didn’t see her. Let’s pretend we never saw her!

Steve: But she’ll take us back to the hospital and we’ll get into trouble for this.

Janet: She could be kind and just let us go swimming.

Steve: She might not, that’s the trouble.

Narrator: As she walked to the back of the bus, she spotted the two escapees at the back.

Steve: She spotted us unfortunately. We got so close, and yet so far.

Janet: If she caught us…

Steve: If she catches us…

Janet: She’ll take us back…

Steve: …to the hospital

Narrator: They gasped in shock and when they saw her they froze to the spot.

Nurse: What are you doing here? What are you going?

Steve: We’re going swimming.

Janet: Oh, well let’s go home to the hospital.

Steve: We escaped from the hospital.

Nurse: You need to come back with me now!

Steve: Do we have to?

Janet: I’m really, really sorry. Am I going to be in trouble?

Steve: Oh sorry. Will I be in trouble as well?

Nurse: You will be in trouble with the nurse!

Steve: Oh no.

Janet: Have we got to go back? We’re enjoying ourselves!

Narrator: They decided to get off at the next stop and caught the next bus back to Ely hospital. When they arrived they were greeted by an angry matron.

(loud footsteps walking down a corridor)

Matron: Where have you two been?! If you want to go out, you’ve got to ask permission first! Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I was just about to phone the police!

Narrator: They got told off for leaving the hospital, but the volunteers were secretly very proud that they managed to get so far. So, they nearly made it to the swimming pool on a hot sunny day. Just not quite.