No hospice could function without its network of volunteers and their extraordinary commitment. If you are interested in volunteering you should contact your local hospice and ask to speak with the Voluntary Services Manager. The majority of hospices have a full time Voluntary Services Manager whose job it is to match volunteers to suitable tasks.

"You must be a good listener. And you must follow the rules. The Hospice is just glad for what you can do. They are delighted if you can give just one hour a week. This is the best job I have ever had. Never before in my life have I experienced such love and happiness. If happiness were taxed, I’d be in the highest bracket there is."

Hospice Volunteer

What do volunteers do for hospices?
Volunteering is crucial to the hospice movement in the UK. The UK hospice movement would not survive without the extraordinary commitment given by around 100,000 volunteers. Men and women from all walks of life give their time and energy to support their local hospice communities.

Volunteers are engaged in a wide variety of roles including:
• administration
• providing creative and recreational activities for day-care patients
• providing bereavement support and complementary therapies
• running support groups for carers
• driving patients to day-care and hospital appointments
• visiting and befriending patients and carers in their own homes
• reception
• kitchen
• ward clerks
• gardening and maintenance
• fundraising

Volunteers bring something unique and distinctive to the hospice movement – a sense of community and fellowship, at a difficult and vulnerable time in people’s lives, and a special mix of skills and experiences.

What I do
Read about volunteers in local hospices/hear from local volunteers:

Catriona, 15, started volunteering at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, Glasgow, as part of her Duke of Edinburgh's Bronze Award. She volunteers in the fundraising department helping out with designing flyers, getting competition prizes, and getting free advertising for the hospice. The fundraising department was the part of the hospice that best suited her availability. She is at school so goes in once a week for an hour.

She says she was very nervous about going to the hospice for the first time. She wasn't sure that she would like it and thought that she would be too scared. She had seen images on TV of hospices and was really worried about it. However, when she got there she was given a tour around and immediately felt comfortable there. She says that the staff have all been wonderful and that the hospice is bright and welcoming.

She finished her bronze award and is starting her silver but says that even if she had decided not to carry on with Duke of Edinburgh she would have stayed on at the hospice as she is enjoying it so much. She thinks that it has been really good work experience for her too. She also likes securing prizes and donations for the hospice as she feels she is making a real difference to them.

Sarah, 33, started volunteering at Garden House Hospice, Letchworth after losing her 20 year old nephew in a car crash. She made a new year's resolution to make a difference and to start volunteering. Sarah began volunteering, after an induction course, on the hospice’s reception and is there to look after relatives, carers and patients' visitors. She acts as a shoulder to cry on or just a friendly face to guide them around the hospice.

She feels that because she has lost someone she is able to relate to the experiences and grief of the people she meets at the hospice. She volunteers for a few hours once a month and doesn't find it too difficult to fit it into her life. She is married with two young children.