Meet Jo…
From every volunteer, patient, staff member and fundraiser, everyone plays a vital part in ensuring Primrose Hospice & Family Support Centre can continue to provide the free and vital support to our community in their time of need. Over the coming months we are going to introduce you to just some of our Primrose People who make all this possible. So you can get to know us and learn about our support services.
The first person we are going to hear from is Jo, our Volunteers’ Manager. You can read her words or listen to her story below…
Hello…I’m Jo, the Volunteers’ Manager at Primrose Hospice & Family Support Centre. I look after, recruit and celebrate our wonderful volunteers. I’ve never worked anywhere where I feel happy coming to work every single day. Primrose Hospice truly is a special place.
We have over 400 volunteers who support us day in day out to deliver our essential services to the community. Although I’ve been working in this job for nine years, it never ceases to amaze me just what people volunteer for. They are amazing! Our volunteers support us with everything from being the face of our retail shops to delivering counselling sessions for people who may be facing the hardest time in their life. I love my job because I get to celebrate our volunteers for their incredible support and because, without volunteers, we simply wouldn’t be here.
Primrose is an integral part of the community. If the hospice wasn’t here, where would peoplego for the support? Not only the nursing support, but the family support, the children’s support and our bereavement groups.
Our volunteers provide us with over 2000 hours of support every month, which saves the hospice over £266,500 every year. This means we are able to help more people access support in their hour of need.
I get involved with lots of different things here at Primrose, including our GALS Group. This is a social and support group for women who have been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. They are the most positive, most exhilarating bunch of ladies. They come here to socialise and have fun, but they also come here to support each other – sometimes without realising it. Someone might come in and they might look a bit down but there’s always someone in the group who will take them under their wing, and a lot of the time can share their own similar experiences.
It’s about helping that person get through their particular stage. It might be in their treatment or they might have had something happen in the family or just not feeling it that day; often by the time they leave they have smiles on their faces and the laughter you hear is infectious. The GALS Group meets on the last Friday of the month and as I have the pleasure of facilitating the group, I really look forward to those Fridays.
It doesn’t matter whether you can spare 1 hour every week or 1 day every year. We need more people like you to spread kindness and support the vital work we do. We have a huge variety of volunteer opportunities that can fit in with your lifestyle and can benefit not only your career but your personal life too!
“I feel it is such a privilege to volunteer at Primrose Hospice. I have been welcomed, received support and made to feel part of a caring team.” – Complementary Therapy Volunteer
If you would like to find out more about volunteering with Primrose Hospice click on the button below.
T: 01527 871051
