By Sarah Shires

Working at Shrewsbury Volunteer Bureau, I often heard how volunteering had helped people get jobs. Little did I realise that, one day, volunteering would actually cause me to leave mine!

That's what happened in September. I left the Volunteer Bureau to devote more time to a fantastic voluntary project called the Big Knit. It has changed my life and the lives of many other volunteers - as well as helping the people for whom we knit.

Yes, you heard right, knitting changes peoples lives!

Young and old

I started the Big Knit in May whilst at Shrewsbury Volunteer Bureau. It was a small project to highlight unusual volunteering opportunities and get young and old volunteering together. We knitted premature baby clothes for the Mowbray Maternity Clinic in South Africa, as well as items to be sold to raise funds.

The Big Knit exceeded all expectations. Hundreds of knitters joined, from Aberdeen to Australia, knitting rooms-full of clothes, blankets and toys.

Afterwards the volunteers wrote wonderful letters and emails telling me how thrilled they were that their knitting was wanted, as they had run out of people to knit for. Some said that their own children had been born prematurely and they now wanted to knit to help other premature babies. Others told me that knitting had been suggested as a part of their occupational therapy.

I started to realise that the Big Knit was making as much difference to the knitters as it was to the people they were knitting for. And so in September I gave up work to devote more time to the project.

Current projects

We currently knit for four main projects:

• premature baby clothes for use in South Africa and in the UK;
• hats for chemotherapy or head injury patients;
• children's jumpers for developing countries;
• and in the light of the recent devastating earthquake, for Make a Difference Day  we had a special; push to see how many blankets we can make for Feed the Children UK to deliver to Pakistan and other affected areas.

I've also been invited to teach children and adults to knit at one-off events and weekly courses. I find this incredibly rewarding and have received so much appreciation for something that is not even a chore but is actually fun to do.

Giving up work and the sudden lack of cash is very difficult, but I do now have time to spend with my young family and do something positive. Our family has had to make serious cut-backs but we are helped slightly by the Governments nursery vouchers. I have also had the chance to try my hand at different types of volunteering including a local People's War project and manning the CSV Action Desk at BBC Radio Shropshire (you can find similar volunteering opportunities on do-it.org.uk).

My original motivation was to help others. But now, through volunteering, I am also helping myself.

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