Adrian Moxon – Volunteer PAT Tester

We spoke to Adrian, a volunteer PAT Tester at the Retail Hub, to shine a spotlight on what he does for the Charity: 

In a few sentences, could you tell us a little about yourself?

I have been retired for almost four years now, my time is now taken up by looking after grandchildren, helping to maintain the buildings of my Church, and of course volunteering at the Retail Hub.

How did you find out about volunteering for the Charity?

Just before I retired at the Retail Hub, I heard a customer asking for something electrical, but it wasn’t available because there were no PAT Testers available to safety check anything.  I thought, “I’m retiring soon, I could do that!” So I asked for more details on the role there and the rest is history.

What was it that drew you to this particular role?

It was a role I was already doing as part of my employment, and also as part of my maintenance work at the Church, so I pretty much knew what was expected. After gaining the skills over many years I thought it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

What do you enjoy about your role?

Bringing back discarded items into use that can earn money to help fund all the Charity’s work is the main motivation that brings me back week on week. You also never stop learning; most weeks I get to test, and often repair, items new to me. “Never seen one of these before!” I think to myself, so open up Google and go from there.

What surprised you about volunteering for the Charity?

The range of people who volunteer. Most are retired like me, but not exclusively, some are much younger. Also how far some volunteers are prepared to travel each week to get there; a few travel a fair way each week! We all have a passion to be there.

What would you say to anyone considering volunteering?

We all have our reasons for choosing Arthur Rank Hospice Charity to volunteer with – mine is personal. The original Hospice in Brookfields looked after my father so well, I wanted to give something back.

Any day that I come in, all of the volunteers, and paid staff, are equally friendly and welcoming. I have been volunteering at the Charity for about four years now, and still look forward to my day at the Retail Hub.

In my role as one of the three PAT Testers, we test all of the electrical donations from the nine shops, so there is always a demand! You might say, “But I’m not an electrician, so I can’t be a PAT Tester”, it might help but it’s not a requirement. However, if you’re already confident in changing a mains plug, can spot a mains cable that is damaged, understand a few very basic electrical terms, you could join us and be one of the PAT Testers.

Plus, don’t forget we are here to help you, you can count on my help, advice and support and I’m sure that goes for others in our team.

Think it might be something you could do? I’m at the Retail Hub in Pampisford on Thursday mornings, come in and ask for me and I’ll show you how you could become one of the team.