#2016hours: How an army of volunteers help make hospital stays that little bit easier

Hundreds of selfless people give up their time to help the Royal Voluntary Service in hospitals across Yorkshire - like 86-year-old Margaret Cawthorne, who was inspired to help at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield after being treated for breast cancer there.

As part of the Loneliness: The Hidden Epidemic campaign, we are encouraging our readers to give a collective 2,016 hours of volunteering for the charity this year with the #2016hours drive - and as Mrs Cawthorne said, it can be enjoyable and rewarding.

She had been quite lonely herself when she first thought about volunteering. She had recently completed cancer treatment after contracting the disease just a few years after losing her husband.

“I’m on my own, my daughters lives in Wales and Derby, and whilst they are very supportive, they are not ion my doorstep,” she said. “When I was at the Hallamshire I’d see people helping out and think ‘I can do that’”.

The process was simple, she was interviewed and had to provide two references, and after a short wait while background checks were carried out, Mrs Cawthorne, of Norton in Sheffield, was accepted. She now helps out two days a week, preparing food in the Royal Voluntary Service cafe at Hallamshire.

“I feel like I get more out of it than I put in,” Mrs Cawthorne said. “My family are sick of me banging on about it, but I really enjoy it! It doesn’t feel like an obligation. You meet a lot of different people, and it’s very busy, but I’d recommend it to anyone.”

The charity runs shops, cafes and trolley services in 17 Yorkshire hospitals, and has vacancies in many. Roles vary from working on the tills in hospital shops, preparing food in cafes like Mrs Cawthorne, running the trolley services that bring refreshments and a friendly face to older people on the wards, and admin support.

The charity’s retail area manager for the north east, Mark Stobart, said the work of volunteers was “invaluable”, and it can be incredibly flexibly and work around the time people have to offer. Like with Mrs Cawthorne, many of the volunteers have been at risk of being lonely, and have benefitted from getting involved.

Mr Stobart said: “There are many different motivations as to why our volunteers help out, they may have lost someone in the hospital and want to give something back, or had a long working career that has come to an end and are looking to keep active.

“Across the organisation we have something like 30,000 volunteers and we are completely dependant on them.

“Without those thousands of people we simply couldn’t function as a charity.
“But they tell us that they get as much out of the volunteering as what they give back.”

To find out more about what help is needed near you, in hospitals and other RVS services, click here.

Where help in needed

The Royal Voluntary Service runs many cafes, shops, and trolley services at hospitals throughout Yorkshire, which are in need of volunteers, including:

Trolley service volunteers in Whitby, Bridlington, Harrogate, Leeds, and Grimsby.

Coffee shop or cafe volunteers in Harrogate, Sheffield, Doncaster, Grimbsy and Scunthorpe.

Retail volunteers in Bridlington, Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham.

If you would like to volunteer call 0845 608 0122 or visit www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk

Please mention The Yorkshire Post and #2016hours

For a full list of vacancies click here.