Our volunteers make an enormous contribution to the Hospice. Without their help we couldn't provide as much of the support we offer to patients and families. In this article we hear from some of our volunteers about the connection they have to the Hospice and they share some of their favourite memories…
We've been volunteering together for over 20 years. We responded to an advert in the Evening Post and first started when the Hospice was located in Knowle. We met and have been friends ever since! We started helping out at the Day Hospice and then began organising all the transportation to the Day Hospice. Now we volunteer together at the coffee shop at the Hospice in Brentry.
We loved helping at the Day Hospice. We would greet the patients, chat to them, serve them drinks and a 3-course lunch, then crumpets with cheese in the afternoon. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and allowed patients to mix with other people in the same position as them. Sometimes they also got their hair and nails done and were made to feel so special.
I've been volunteering for the Hospice for almost 10 years in three very different roles. I volunteer on reception in the Inpatient Unit and, in the Long Ashton office, I help with IT in the Fundraising Team and also do some banking. I started volunteering when my dad was cared for by the Hospice. He was looked after so well in his last week.
One night when I was visiting him, I stepped out to get some air and started chatting with the receptionist who explained she was a volunteer. I thought, I could do that and give a little bit back for all the help we'd had. Helping patients and families in Brentry is quite different to my volunteering at the fundraising office. One memory that will stay with me forever is being sprayed from head to toe in mud, trying to help an ambulance stuck in the grass at Brentry. The nurses were in hysterics and, needless to say, I was allowed to leave my shift early that night!
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