NEURO NEWS— NEWSLETTER FOR VOLUNTEERS OF NEUROSUPPORT MAY/JUNE 2010

MAY/JUNE 2010 ISSUE 15

CELEBRATION OF VOLUNTEERS’ WEEK

The first week of June was volunteers’ week. Volunteers’ week is an annual event which celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK, a time when we all get a pat on the back. The week plays a huge part in raising the profile of those who regularly contribute to society in this way, while inspiring others to get involved too.

On the 1^st June, we met at Neurosupport for our celebration, with tea, cakes and company. Our chair of trustees Mr. Ken Morris and his fellow trustee David Britt joined us. Mr. Morris later presented certificates to volunteers. It was good to see some new faces, along with shall I say “The Usual Suspects”, but in a good way.

The raffle was won by Ron Kermode, his prize being a lovely basket of toiletries, which I know has now been divided between his daughters, after I mentioned to him that the beauty treatment wasn’t working. We all enjoyed the tea & cakes, along with lots of catching up.

So why do we volunteer? For me the answer is simple “To give something back”. This is probably the most common answer, along with “To meet other people”. There is of course the fringe benefits, i.e. food in the guise of Tony (“There is food left from the buffet, as some didn’t turn up for the meeting,”) Bonner. If you happen to work on the day when Tony says “help yourselves to food”, a plague of locusts springs to mind.

Recently, when we were asked by Danny Start to write something about ourselves, that he could use when the media contact him for items about Neurosupport. I had, as it happens also been asked to write my story, from the view point of a carer for someone who has had a Brain Haemorrhage, (in another role I am on The Brain Haemorrhage Support Group Committee). Here are a few extracts from my story, they may be something other carers will read & perhaps relate to. If you would like your story to be used either by Danny, contact him in the first instance, he can help you (if needed) to write your story. Let Danny know if you want it to be featured in our newsletter, he will then pass it to me for inclusion in the next issue; so to part of my story.

THE STORY OF A CARER, ALLEGEDLY,

AND WHY DAFFODILS MEAN SO MUCH

So why do daffodils mean so much? After 5 weeks of not leaving the house, (the shaved head down one side is not the best look on a woman), but with gentle coaxing, we had a walk down to Sefton Park and sat on a bench, surrounded by daffodils, in full bloom, for what seemed a life time, we both knew that we had been lucky, and life as we knew it had changed forever, we had been given that second chance.

Why allegedly a carer? well I am not sure who looks after who, as I have some health problems and as we both grow older we have slipped into a rhythm of life that suits us both. As I write this, in the Spring of 2010, 14 years later, the daffodils are still in bloom but some are fading and dying. I remember that time on the park bench, we both do, that wonderful day when we sat surrounded by daffodils. Life has been different for us both, work was not possible but volunteering for me was. We had gone to a meeting about brain haemorrhage and a possible support group that was held in the then Glaxo centre, (now Neurosupport) in Liverpool city centre. Over the coming months we went to meetings at this centre, by now 2 years had passed, and when I heard they were looking for volunteers to help staff the patient information desk at the new Walton Centre I signed up. “To give something back”, a phrase you hear a lot in volunteering, so in September 1998 I went on an induction course and have been here ever since. My role has changed over the years, although I still volunteer, I now also represent the volunteers at staff meetings, write a newsletter, and contribute to our own blog. Following my long association with The Walton Centre, when it achieved Foundation Trust status in 2009, I became a hospital governor. One of my other volunteering roles is being a committee member for The Brain Haemorrhage Support Group, a cause very close to my heart. To give my time and to help others in a similar situation, this has given me the greatest reward of all. So when our lives changed in 1996, maybe things did happen for a reason who knows. What I do know is that every year we always enjoy the daffodils and remember.

Alan Clark.