Cancer charity seeks new volunteers to help its Wigan patients

The charity is looking for volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to help in a variety of different, but extremely rewarding, roles by providing vital practical and emotional support to people living with cancer in the local area.

Macmillan has launched the drive to recruit around 10 new volunteers, who can spare one or two hours a week for around 12 sessions.

They will be matched with a suitable service user to provide a variety of vital practical help, such as light housework, dog walking or shopping, to simply having a chat and offering some companionship.

Hazel Meadows, Macmillan volunteering services co-ordinator in the North West, said: “Macmillan Cancer Support always needs willing volunteers who are passionate about helping people.

“Whether you can spare a few minutes or a couple of hours, whatever time you can give really does matter.

“Volunteering is such a rewarding way to offer practical support and we would love to hear from anyone who has some time to spare, which will really make a difference to the lives of local people with cancer in Wigan.”

Anyone interested in volunteering needs to be aged over 18 and be able to spare some free time.

In return they will receive a full induction, as well as ongoing training and support, and will be paid expenses.

Rita James, from St Helens, a retired assistant director, has volunteered for Macmillan for 18 months.

She supports people for a few hours a week, by just chatting over a coffee, so they can talk about their feelings to someone outside their family, or offering company so they can focus on something completely different or help find new interests or activities to regain their health and confidence.

She said: “I still remember how very privileged I felt to be able to support my mum at home, as she wished, right up until the end.

“However, that could not have been achieved without the dedication, skill, warmth and humour of the Macmillan nurses assigned to mum’s care. Not only did they support mum, but also me and my dad, who was finding it hard to cope with what was happening.

“I never forgot that experience so when it came to giving some of my time in retirement to volunteering, Macmillan was high on my list.

“So, the idea of being able to help Macmillan in its aims in supporting people either during their own illness, or indeed after their treatment, appealed to me.

“I am amazed by the different ways in which cancer or serious illness impacts on people’s lives and have such admiration for each person I meet. Although I am there for them, they somehow manage to teach me something new about life and human nature and about myself, sometimes we just reflect on life and have a good old chat and a laugh.

“As I felt privileged to support mum, so I feel that same sense of privilege in being welcomed into people’s homes and being able to offer companionship, practical support and, I hope, positivity into their lives, albeit in some very small way.”

One of the beneficiaries of Rita’s help has been young Wigan man David who was diagnosed with a low grade brain tumour in 2015.

He said: “My world was turned upside down. I did not know how to deal with it. I started telling friends more than family.

“Then I Googled Macmillan and that’s where I found and arranged to meet up with Rita.

“I started seeing her on a weekly basis and as time moved on and I started to feel the benefits from it, we would just go to telephone calls really. I could phone Rita any time I felt I needed to.

“When I had bad days I thought of what she had told me and the way to come out of it.

“She is absolutely brilliant. If I did not have the support from Rita and Macmillan I would have been more down the lines of being anxious.

“I was anxious to start off with and I was getting myself into a place where I was having more bad days than good days.

“I would like to thank Macmillan and, more than anyone, Rita. She is an amazing person to help me the way she did.

“I still keep in touch with her to keep her updated with how my scans and results are going. She is wonderful and a really, really nice person.

“If I had any message for volunteers it would be ‘thank you’. There are not many people who go out of their way like yourselves.”

For further information about volunteering, contact Hazel Meadows at [email protected] or go to www.volunteering.macmillan.org.uk/

See the interview with David on wigantoday.net