PITCHERWITS TM
PIT your wits against Pitcherwits — the exciting puzzle where some of the answers are in pictures! The solutions to the visual clues fit into the shaded spaces on the grid. SOLUTION TOMORROW
ACROSS
1 Picture Clue 5 Picture Clue 9 Small rodent with much to love about it (4) 10 Motorway feature for ice-cream? (4)
11 Extra large that’s said to be outstanding (5) 12 Slide, to risk identity theft (4) 14 Thus and thus, it’s only moderate (2-2) 15 Picture Clue 18 Picture Clue
DOWN
1 Picture Clue 2 Picture Clue 3 West woman in primaeval setting (3) 4 A positive eyesore, some of it (3) 6 Flailing maracas that can give you a black eye! (7)
7 Eyeshadow, to conceal all the fuss (3) 8 Picture Clue 10 Picture Clue 13 League sort is kind of creepy (3) 16 Circle Line built amidst anarchy (3) 17 It’s the 25th, say, for what reason? (3)
companion in a gastroenterology ward at her local hospital.
She now mentors new volunteers, helps with virtual bedside visits — working the technology so patients can chat to their families by video link — and chats with some of the more elderly patients.
‘Just knowing that we’re all human and sharing a smile and a hello can make all the difference,’ she says. ‘And remembering what is really important in life.’
TRACEYEWEN, 57, a hairdresser from Stocktonon-Tees, Co. Durham, is another Helpforce volunteer. She’d only just started volunteering on the wards when Covid struck and she was furloughed.
‘It has definitely helped my mental health,’ she says. ‘I love it, but I probably gained more than I gave because during lockdown it gave me a structure to my life and the feeling I’d made a difference.’
As Dr Max Pemberton, an NHS psychiatrist and Daily Mail columnist, puts it: ‘Volunteers are the backbone of the NHS. Without them, I don’t think that the NHS would survive.’
Indeed, the scheme helps in myriad ways, but particularly by easing the pressure on overstretched hospital staff.
‘I don’t think people realise how much pressure the staff are under and how much they have to do,’ adds Davina. ‘None of them are in it for the money.’ According to a recent study covering all participating NHS trusts, a staggering 71 per cent of nurses say that the help of volunteers makes them feel less stressed in their work. Volunteers save nurses an average of 26 minutes each in every working day (based on nurses surveyed across the Helpforce programme). It also makes a huge difference that the staff feel supported by cheery, upbeat people who have chosen to spend their precious free time here. ‘They’ve come with the aim of helping,’ says Debi M cKe own , 49, a lead nurse in therapeutic support at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. ‘ That alone speaks volumes. Many of them have their own jobs, too. ‘So we value them. We love them. We are really grateful. It is a real community. ’ Karen Oliver works full time as a primary school teacher but she still manages to volunteer at the weekend, helping out with meals, feeding some of the patients, keeping others company — listening, chatting, and running errands to the hospital shop.
‘Once or twice on a Saturday morning, I’d think, “Ooh I could just lie in and be lazy,” but as soon as I step onto the ward, this thought vanishes. It’s just so lovely,’ she says.
It goes without saying that the volunteers transform the hospital experience for patients.
They are often frightened, anxious and, now more than ever, chronically lonely.
Which is all wonderful, but of course it is a two-way street.
So volunteers of all ages and backgrounds also make friends, gain a sense of purpose, have a laugh and feel good about themselves and other people. They also have higher wellbeing and happiness levels than the rest of the population.
ON TOP of that, they learn about the NHS and what makes it tick and, more often than not, fall in love with its creaking glory.
Over the years, the volunteer scheme has also acted as a very effective recruiting tool.
‘I know so many registered nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, occupational therapists who were volunteers first,’ says Debi, who has been nursing since 1994. ‘We’re brewing our own lovely, lovely community of workers.’
And that’s not counting all the teenagers considering nursing or medicine, or any number of hospital jobs, who come and give it whirl and get the bug.
(Some 58 per cent of people who volunteer say it has seriously increased their interest in working for the NHS.)
So let’s sing from the rafters about these otherwise unsung heroes of the health service and thank them — or, more accurately, you!
You brilliant Daily Mail readers have already given so much of your time, love, energy and generosity to support the NHS as it squares up to its greatest challenge yet.
And, for anyone still not sure whether to take the plunge and volunteer, please bear in mind Kenny’s wisdom.
‘Sometimes all you have to do is smile, or hold someone’s hand, or just be there,’ he says. ‘Because it costs nowt and the payback is priceless.’
To find out more about being a Helpforce volunteer, visit helpforce.community