Why I love volunteering

Volunteering with Leonard Cheshire

I have been a volunteer with Leonard Cheshire for just over a year, and it’s been an amazing experience.  I‘m glad I’ve chosen Leonard Cheshire. 

I have always been passionate about volunteering. I have volunteered for my local library in the past, and I wanted to volunteer again, so I chose Leonard Cheshire.

I chose Leonard Cheshire because I found their volunteering projects unique and interesting. I have helped to hold creative writing sessions for residents, health walks, collecting money, and helping with DIY tasks.

Using my interests

Kieran, the volunteer coordinator, has been fantastic to work with and helped to organise projects suited to my interests. At the time, I was unemployed and decided to volunteer to gain experience, meet new people and improve my confidence. It has done all this and more and has been a great experience. 

My experience has been amazing. I have enjoyed meeting the staff and residents at Leonard Cheshire. In January, I held creative writing sessions for residents at Quantock House in West Super Mare on how to pen their life stories. All the people who attended wrote a memoir about their life. It was a great insight into their lives.

What sessions have I planned

For the sessions, I created presentations, mini activities and brought in a range of books for everyone to read. It was a great success! We all had tea, biscuits and wrote about our life. It was enjoyable talking and laughing about good memories and offering support when talking about more difficult memories. Everyone really enjoyed the sessions.

We have currently been working on trying to create videos about people’s life stories through Zoom. A mini-documentary style idea. It has been an exciting challenge to adapt to working online in this COVID world. But still enjoyable. 

Staying connected at Christmas

I think it can tackle loneliness and help give comfort to people who feel socially isolated. I think the virtual volunteering projects that Leonard Cheshire are hosting are a fantastic idea. It’s a great way of staying connected in these difficult times.

I think spending time with family and friends is my favourite thing about Christmas. It is a huge shame due to COVID that we are unable to have big celebrations, but I’m glad people can stay connected through things like Zoom. And of course, I also hope everyone at Leonard Cheshire has a great Christmas!