When a chat makes all the difference . . .

NATURALLY, I’m thrilled by the Mail’s inspiring campaign to encourage a great army of volunteers to help the NHS.

You are such a terrific, kind, involved bunch of people! If ever I happen to mention that I’ve been feeling down, kind readers rush to reassure and comfort me — and that’s why I’m not at all surprised that so many people have responded to the Mail’s clarion call.

I received a good email this week from VT (she doesn’t want her name used) who loves this column and had also just read my article on loneliness in the January issue of Good Housekeeping. In that piece, I suggest volunteering — because if you feel isolated, reaching out to help others can transform your own life as well as theirs.

VT responds: ‘I have experienced loneliness to the core at times, so feel I want to offer anything to help people — and yes, volunteering is always a good one.

‘I ended up volunteering in a hospice, and a man to whom I was serving tea told me I’d really made his day.

‘How could I possibly make the day of a man shortly about to die? Well, he had once had his own haulage business and we had been discussing the problems of driving on the road from Leicester to Lincoln.

‘Because of that, he said he would actually have something to tell his wife and daughter when they came in later, as he never usually had anything to talk about. I was dumbfounded, but it’s stuck with me ever since that just a simple conversation can have value.’

Yes, it may sound mundane — a woman with her own problems talking to someone at the end of his life . . . about traffic. Yet the natural, conversational interaction between them meant everything to a man who clearly felt worthless, even boring, when his family came to visit.

I suspect some people worry that they don’t have the right qualifications/personality to volunteer, but VT’s story shows that the only qualification needed is humanity.

BEL answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry street, London w8 5TT, or email bel. mooney@dailymail.co.uk. names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.