Volunteers Week ‘Spotlight’

• 3 June 2025

This week, Monday 2 June – Sunday 8 June, is Volunteers Week!

This is an annual UK-wide campaign held to celebrate the incredible volunteers and recognise the work they do. The initiative launched in 1984 and has been running for over 40 years, highlighting the diversity and unity of volunteer work all across the UK. At Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, we are so grateful for all of our volunteers and the outstanding contribution they have to the hospice. From serving tea to filing paperwork, every single role makes a difference and helps us to provide our services.

At Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, we have over 600 wonderful volunteers who dedicate their time and skills to us. Our mission of making every moment count couldn’t happen without them!

Two of our volunteers have shared some of their experience with us, for this ‘Spotlight’ feature:

George, Inpatient Unit Afternoon Tea Volunteer

My name is George, I usually work as a software engineer, but I am primarily a lover of music!

You may have heard me playing the piano in the bistro, if so I sincerely apologise! Although, I think recently, with thanks to Arthur Rank Hospice, volunteering is becoming my new passion.

When I began volunteering, I looked up hospice volunteering in the area and found ARHC. It sounded great, so I went for it!

I was drawn to this particular role because I really wanted to be involved directly with the patients but have no formal caring experience, so I thought serving tea sounded perfect. One of my favourite aspects of the role is how nice it is to be able to offer some comfort to the patients and their visitors, I also love hearing everybody’s stories.

Volunteering for the charity has been an even more enriching experience than I had imagined. If you’re considering volunteering, I know you may be nervous, but just go for it! It’s such a wonderful thing to do, you will be so happy you did it!

Jean, In patient Unit and Retail Volunteer

My name is Jean and I volunteer in the Great Shelford Charity Shop and the IPU. I watched the Hospice being built, and I’ve been volunteering there now for 8 years.

My husband and I retired early and went to live in France for a few years. On our return to Cambridge, I looked for a volunteering role as I wanted to do something worthwhile. We live close to the Arthur Rank Hospice and I watched it being built, so it seemed the obvious place to look for a job. I was offered a role on the Inpatient Unit, serving breakfast to the patients. I loved it, and witnessed first hand the wonderful care patients were given, by such dedicated and caring staff. I enjoyed meeting the patients and talking to them as well as their families and felt a very small part of an amazing team of staff.

I had no personal experiences of a Hospice before, just what I was observing, although I had some nursing experience. But one year ago, my husband was admitted to the Inpatient Unit, and now I was on the side, a relative not a volunteer. He was cared for so beautifully, and the support that I and the rest of the family were given by everyone was simply outstanding. It was an extraordinary experience, one that none of us will ever forget, and one of the reasons why I now want to try and replay the lines and love that we were all shown by continuing to volunteer for the Hospice.

I didn’t feel able to work on the IPU after my husband died, so after a few months I was offered a retail role in the Hospice Charity Shop in Great Shelford. It’s quite a small shop in the heart of the village, but it is so busy and bustling, and very popular with the locals, so you see many of the same faces’ week after week. There are two volunteers on a shift, along with one of the two lovely managers. It’s such a nice place to work, and there is lots to do, e.g. re-stocking the rapidly emptying shelves, meeting people all the time, accepting lots of donations and selling a huge variety of clothes and Bric-a-Brac. There are wonderful bargains to be found, and all the proceeds go towards enabling patients and their families to receive the wonderful care the Hospice provides. What could be more satisfying!

I have recently returned to my role on the IPU and continue to work in the Charity Shop. They are completely different roles but are both enormously satisfying. The Arthur Rank Hospice volunteers are made to feel so appreciated and are supported in their roles all the way along. There is no doubt that we gain as much personally from our volunteering as we give.