This National Volunteers Week, we thought we’d tell you a bit more about some of our volunteers. As well as volunteering at St Andrew’s, they all seem to juggle many commitments and interests and Lynne is a great example of this.
Lynne has been volunteering at St Andrew’s for five years – during that time she has escorted patients within the hospital, made ward visits and, most recently, she has been working in our Day Infusion Unit.
Outside of St Andrew’s, Lynne has also volunteered with International China Concern– starting out with a trip to China with her sister as part of an international team in 2012.
She has become very involved with an orphanage in Heng Yang in Hunan Province, making several visits to work in the facility. Lynne and her husband have also sponsored a little boy and girl. They have even been taking Skype lessons in Mandarin!
While in China, they have supported the local team in the move to a new purpose built building. Mostly, she works alongside the carers and the babies and toddlers with a particular focus on helping promote play within the centre.
The children mostly have physical or intellectual disabilities or a life threatening condition, like heart disease or a birth defect.
“The work has impacted me hugely – I loved the children from the moment I met them,” Lynne comments.