Wills’ secret volunteer effort
THE Duke of Cambridge has marked Volunteers’ Week by revealing he has been secretly manning a crisis helpline for people with mental health issues.
William is one of more than 2,000 volunteers who have trained for the round-the-clock text messaging service Shout.
Kensington Palace had previously refused to confirm whether the second-in-line to the throne had followed up on his pledge to train to work on the service.
But yesterday it released a video of him telling a group of Shout volunteers last month that he had been joining them on duty.
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He said: “I’m going to share a little secret with you guys. I’m actually on the platform volunteering.”
William and the Duchess of Cambridge, along with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, helped to launch the crisis line in May last year, investing £3million through their Royal Foundation.
Since then its volunteers have had more than 300,000 text conversations with people needing support. Two-thirds of conversations are with people under 25.
Palace officials had previously been reluctant to discuss William’s volunteering because they feared the service might get overloaded.
But they disclosed his volunteering after checking that Shout was geared up to handle an expected increase in demand.
William and Kate also marked Volunteers’ Week by making video calls earlier this week to two organisations to discuss the work they have been doing using volunteers.
They spoke to Conscious Youth which works with young people from mainly black and ethnic minority backgrounds in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and other parts of Kirklees in West Yorkshire.
They also called Machynlleth Community Corona Response, a group set up to help people in
Powys during the crisis. Still at Anmer Hall in Norfolk after their daughter Princess Charlotte’s year went back to class in London, the royal couple joked with volunteers at Conscious Youth about the challenges of home schooling their children during the crisis.
William, who has a degree in geography, admitted that Prince George’s coursework has proved daunting at times. “I struggle with
Year 2 maths,” he said. And a baffled William also asked: “Can any of you explain to me why all of us were bulk buying toilet roll?”
Sophie Simpson, 38, who co-founded Conscious Youth with Serena Johnson, 35, said: “We were talking about the struggles of teaching at home.”
Kate, 38, revealed she had been planting seedlings with her children so they could grow their own food. She also called on those who have rallied around in their communities to carry on after the crisis. She said: “One of the things that would be amazing, I think, is if everyone in their communities was to carry on and still celebrate volunteering in the way that everyone has been during the pandemic. Everyone’s got something to give back.”