In The World: the ‘Digital Eagle’

In the first of our regular stories about Barclays colleagues helping their communities, Digital Eagle Shweta Walia explains why she joined a programme to train 2,100 Marie Curie nurses to use computer tablets, freeing them to spend more time caring for patients with a terminal illness.

Cancer is very close to my heart because my dad suffered from it, so when I heard about a programme to help train Marie Curie nurses in computer skills, I really wanted to be involved. I work as a Branch Manager in Derby and have been a Digital Eagle from the beginning, because I’m quite a technical person. We’ve offered ‘Tea & Teach’ sessions within the branch and in the community since 2013, and it’s amazing to see the difference they make to people. One woman in her 90s is now using her iPad to book holidays and talk with her family abroad. She’s become a regular visitor to our branch – she pops in whenever she has a computer problem.

We set up two training sessions for around 35 Marie Curie nurses in and around the Derby area. In the first session we talked to them about how the tablets work and how they could help them manage their work better and provide better care for their patients. Some of them had very, very basic knowledge so it was about taking them on that journey to make their lives easier. We really had to start with the basics of how to turn it on!

I think the nurses were surprised that Barclays would offer this kind of help for free. They were like: “Why would you do that?”. As a branch manager, I want to help the community that I work and live in. It’s the satisfaction to be able to help people who need it. To be able to share your knowledge and to learn about what they do. We might work for a bank but we are no different from anybody else. Marie Curie is such an amazing organisation and to be able to support it in this way is what drives me. It’s wonderful to help those nurses, who make such a difference to people’s lives. It gives me this satisfaction and pleasure that’s unlike anything else. You feel you have achieved something and made a difference.

Two days after the last training session I lost my dad, so it’s very emotional for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t know there was all this support available before he died. But now I know there are these amazing people out there to help families in similar situations. It’s good to know that you are there to help them and they are there to help you.