Hospice celebrates Volunteers Week with a call for volunteers from the Sudbury area

St Nicholas Hospice Care is celebrating national Volunteers’ Week from June 1 to 7 with a call for caring and compassionate volunteers from the Sudbury area, that want to make a difference to the lives of local people.

The volunteers will be part of an award-winning team of hospice neighbours that provide companionship, practical support and a listening ear to people living with dying, death and grief in the West Suffolk and Thetford area.

David Winter, of West Tofts, became a hospice neighbour as a way of saying thank you to the hospice for looking after this dad during the last days of his life.

“Dad had the most fantastic people looking after him. It made me realise how important the hospice is to everybody and the amount of good volunteer work you can do for them,” he said.

After training and speaking to hospice staff, David enrolled as a hospice neighbour and during the last three years he has provided companionship and practical support to three families.

David said: “The role is varied – you could be with someone who is at the end of their life for quite a while, so you could be sitting with them and talking about items in the newspaper or visits from the family. It helps them an awful lot and for people who are not well and cannot speak at all, just being there is a help.”

Glenn Hubbard, hospice neighbours manager, said: “We would like more volunteers from the Sudbury area to help us extend our reach to more people at the end of their life. They will be a joining a genuine, warm and engaging team of hospice neighbours that naturally make connections with people and build local networks which really helps provide the normality that people have said is so valuable to them.”

For further information and informal chat about the role contact the hospice neighbour team by telephoning, 01284 719638 or emailing Hospice.Neighbours@stnh.org.uk

Pictured above is hospice neighbour David Winter.