We’re loving it! Heroes making a difference...
WE HAVE THE TIME TO HELP
MIKE Pointer, 72, a former scientific consultant, lives in Salisbury with his wife, Pam, 69. He has volunteered at Salisbury District Hospital since 2011, supporting older patients.
‘Seven years ago I had a heart attack, and although I recovered relatively quickly, it was a wake up call. Clearly I was just too stressed – and so I decided to cut my working hours and find something useful but less demanding.
‘ I’d received marvellous care at Salisbury so I looked at its website where I came across the Engage programme, a volunteering scheme supporting older adults.
‘The volunteers visit 16 wards in the hospital – I might go to the stroke unit one morning a week, or the gastroenterology ward the next. As a volunteer what I offer is broadly similar wherever I go: I sit by their beds and talk about their feelings.
‘Often when patients have shared a problem, they realise it’s not as insurmountable as it first seemed. Our role is important because if a patient is anxious or depressed, it can have such a detrimental effect on their general wellbeing, leading to slower recovery.
‘What volunteers have is time, which the medical staff don’t. My record is three hours with one gentleman who was so lonely and couldn’t stop crying about problems with his children. He wanted someone to listen and I was able to do that. I like the purpose volunteering gives me. And I love to give some sort of hope.’
WHAT WE DO MATTERS
FIONA Aiken, 59, a retired university manager, lives in Lancaster. She volunteers from home as a controller for the North West Blood Bike service, co-ordinating motorbike riders who deliver blood, human milk, lab samples and equipment.
‘One of the things I love about this job is
that I’m called “the controller”, it is quite nice being in charge. Joking aside, though, the job carries a lot of responsibility – I get around 30 calls a night.
‘I got involved two-and-a-half years ago after I read about the blood bike service in a newspaper and just thought: I can do that. ‘I was approaching retirement and wanted something useful to do. I also wanted to give something back to the NHS as it looked after my mum. It’s just my folder of contacts, and my house phone.
‘I volunteer for two or three eight-hour shifts a month – they run through from 6pm to 2am during week nights.
‘Often I don’t get to bed until 3am, but I love it: you get an adrenaline buzz when the phone rings for the first time on a shift, as you never know what you’re going to get that night, you just know it is urgent and you need to work quickly.
‘We touch so many peoples’ lives but we never know who or how we have helped – we just know that what we do matters and take pride in that. Some bikers and controllers will work over Christmas, New Year and Bank Holidays – nobody moans though because they want to do it, that’s the great thing about being a volunteer.’
James Grieves: Crossroads
I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH A-LEVEL pupil James Grieves, 17, of Stannington, Northumberland, has volunteered once a week at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital for the past year.
‘I started after the hospital gave a recruitment talk at my school,’ he said.
James said his role was simply to sit and talk to some of the elderly patients. ‘As well as the company, this helps distract them from pain,’ he said.
‘To begin with, the nurses would point out who was lonely but over time, I grew in confidence and now, I walk into the ward and can tell who would like a chat. I’ve learned so much.
‘It made me realise that teenagers and older people have so much in common.
‘Teenagers are at a crossroads in their lives, and we don’t yet know who we are. But many elderly people have lost their identities because they’ve put everything into work for years – and then suddenly that’s all gone.
‘I volunteer once a week for two-and-ahalf hours, on a Tuesday after lessons.’