‘Volunteering gives you this feeling you can’t get from anything else’
Carolyn Metcalfe has kept her spirits high this year by helping others, and now that she has a taste for it, she’s going to continue.
I’ve always liked to help people when I can, but it was only this year that I decided to formally do voluntary work. Early on in lockdown, I saw an advert for NHS Volunteer Responders. It was organised by the Royal Voluntary Service to give extra support in communities during Covid-19. I wondered how I could fit it in with my job with Royal Mail. I wanted to help, so I filled in my details and ticked the boxes for ‘shopping’, ‘prescription pick-up’ and ‘check in and chat calls’, and hit apply.
A couple of weeks later, an email pinged up and said I’d passed the checks and been accepted. All of a sudden, I felt apprehensive. I wasn’t too sure what I’d let myself in for, but I was excited to find out. I used the login I had been given for the GOODSAM responder app, which alerted me when someone needed help.
Four days later, my phone let out a siren, making me jump. A notification flashed up with a woman’s name and a number, saying she needed shopping. I don’t like shopping (my partner, Ady, does it), but this wasn’t about me. I was nervous. ‘What if I get something wrong?’ I thought. I took a deep breath, hit accept and called the number to get the list.
HELPING HAND
After a flustered trip around Lidl, I placed the shopping outside the woman’s door and stepped back as an elderly lady, with a tired but kind face, opened the door. I apologised profusely in case I’d grabbed the wrong tomatoes or peas, but as she picked it up, she smiled, told me that she was eternally grateful and put money down on the ground. All the worry I’d been feeling melted away and it felt good knowing that this small gesture had made such a big difference to her.
After that, whenever my phone buzzed, I’d leap up and give a little ‘woohoo’ of excitement. I couldn’t get out the door fast enough. I was doing about four hours maximum a week, going to get shopping, prescriptions and chatting to people on the phone. I was happy to do all of this and the people that I helped made it clear that they appreciated what I was doing.’
Check in and chat calls were rewarding, too. One time, I got a notification for a call with a woman, but her husband picked up and explained she had dementia and sent an alert by accident, so we chatted instead. He told me how she’d taken care of him when he’d had cancer and that it was his turn to look after her. I could sympathise with him, as my mum went through the same thing with my dad.
Volunteering gives you this incredible feeling you can’t get from anything else;
I wasn’t sure what I’d let myself in for, but I was excited to find out
it lifts you up and makes you feel so happy. We need more volunteers, though; it is clear that some of the people I have helped have been struggling and I worry what will happen to them once the scheme stops. I am going to keep helping others until the app is no longer active, then I will see if any charities need a few hours of help a week. This year has changed my life and I can’t imagine stopping volunteering now.
• volunteering.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk