Helping with the vaccine rollout was a lifesaver ... for me
VOLUNTEER HAD BEEN ON THE VERGE OF SUICIDE
A VOLUNTEER helping with the Covid vaccine roll-out in Derby says the role “saved his life” after coming to the brink of committing suicide earlier this year.
David Williams, 60, started helping out with the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out at Derby Arena in March and says the role was crucial in turning around his life, shortly after he tried to take his own life.
He has used his experience with depression, anxiety and trauma to assist nervous and worried patients as they prepare for their Covid-19 jabs.
In one situation, David sat with a worried patient for 30 minutes to work through his worries about the jab, after which the two men shared a heartfelt hug.
David stopped work in 2012 due to his depression, “as I could not cope any more”, bringing to a close a 35-year career as an IT consultant in London.
In March this year, David travelled from his home in Cossall, Nottinghamshire, to Beeston
Cemetery with the intention of ending his life. Fortunately, two gravediggers working at the cemetery spotted David and helped to dissuade him from carrying out his plan.
Shortly after that fateful day, David, through Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Voluntary Service, secured a role as a volunteer at Derby Arena.
Now working from Midland House in Derby, the new location of the city’s largest vaccination centre, David said: “Volunteering saved my life when I was in a deep depression. I very nearly committed suicide and this has brought me back from the brink. Getting to help people when they come to get their jabs. Working from here and for the NHS helped save my life.
“I went to commit suicide, I had had enough, but helping out here and at the arena has been the best medicine, talking with the patients and the other volunteers. It has given me such a good buzz.
“Helping by volunteering can get you out of a bad situation, that’s my advice. Many of the patients are worried and anxious and I have used my experience to help them through it.”
David, who is now studying to become a phlebotomist and also volunteers with the Red Cross, said: “I love life now, because I am giving back and helping people.”