Health and social care is one of the largest volunteering sectors in the UK. This includes organisations like the NHS and charities which improve the wellbeing of people of all ages. So what do helpers actually get involved with? The opportunities are more diverse than we imagined as our bloggers reveal.

All | Sara | Jasmine | Dawn

Monday Aug 11, 2008

Welcome to my blog

Hi there.  My name is Dawn and I volunteer at a hospital radio station for a few hours each week.  I’ve been presenting my two-hour show since March… but there’s so much more to do!

First of all, let me just tell you why I decided to join the station.  I graduated with a media studies degree in 2005 and moved back to my hometown of Nottingham.   There isn’t an abundance of work in Nottingham for someone with this kind of degree and no work experience so I decided I’d better do something about it.  A lot of jobs I had considered applying for in the past had asked for voluntary experience and as radio broadcasting was something I did as part of my degree, and enjoyed, I contacted the station, had an interview and started volunteering in October 2007. 

As part of my induction I was encouraged to organise my own fundraising event, which I did - the Christmas Raffle.  It was a lot of work and I must have contacted at least a hundred different companies before I received any responses!  All the emails and letters did finally pay off and I got some great prizes from restaurants, shops and other organisations.  We managed to sell loads of raffle tickets and the station made more money than it had in any of the previous years’ raffles!

As well as fundraising, all the members of the station go on regular ward visits.  This is so we can get song requests from the patients but also so they actually know about the station and that they can listen for free.  Some members are often reluctant to go out on the wards as the response towards us isn’t always positive.  Generally though we manage to get quite a few requests, and for the patient who doesn’t get many visitors, being able to request their favourite song and hear it on the radio on the same night might be the highlight of their day! 

Anyway, I think that’s enough for now…I’ll tell you more about what I do, including my show in the next post.

See you soon,

Dawn

Posted by Dawn ( 4:14 PM )
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