This Volunteers’ Week, which will take place from 2 to 8 June, we are celebrating the amazing people who give their time, energy and compassion to support our patients, colleagues and communities.
UHMBT currently has 314 volunteers in total. People volunteer in all kinds of areas including ‘Meet and Greet’ on hospital reception desks, Patient Support, Neonatal Units, the Special Care Baby Unit, hospital cafes, Meals on Wheels, Chaplaincy, gardening, animal therapy, the Macmillan team, Bay Trust Radio, Radio Lonsdale, Bay Trust Charities, on the Readers’ Panel, in the Royal Voluntary Service cafes and there’s even a harpist who plays music for patients.
Our volunteers make a real difference every single day — from offering a friendly face and a listening ear, to helping with essential services across our sites. To each and every one of you: thank you. We are so grateful for everything you do.
Andrew Stephenson CBE, Chair of UHMBT, said: “I would like to say a massive thank you to our fantastic volunteers, many of whom have been volunteering in the NHS in Morecambe Bay for years. Our volunteers provide an extra level of kindness, support, experience, skills, care and compassion to our patients, their loved ones and our colleagues. On behalf of our Trust, I would like to say how grateful we are for their unstinting support and wish to recognise and celebrate their exceptional contribution to the NHS. Thank you all!"
Volunteering is a vital part of how we care for people across our hospitals and services. Whether it is welcoming visitors at reception, offering comfort and reflection through chaplaincy or supporting colleagues behind the scenes, our volunteers play an essential role in creating a kind, safe and supportive environment for all.
Barry Rigg, Head of Patient Experience, UHMBT, said: “Volunteers enhance patient experience, improve care quality and strengthen the link between the NHS and the community, all while fostering volunteer confidence and skill development.
“Volunteering improves your self-confidence and esteem as you develop new skills and knowledge. There is a feel-good factor when you finish your shift as you feel that the difference you have made is important however small and you have been contributing to a cause you care about.
“Volunteering can also have a positive impact on the staff who work alongside volunteers, creating new avenues of learning, skills development and even new career pathways.”
We are proud to work alongside people of all ages and backgrounds who bring compassion, dedication and a generous spirit to everything they do. Volunteers are truly the heart of our Trust and national Volunteers’ Week is a chance to recognise the difference they make – every week of the year.
Find out more about volunteering with us by emailing: patientexperience@mbht.nhs.uk
UHMBT volunteer stories
Reverend Christine Brown, Westmorland General Hospital Chaplaincy, Kendal
Volunteering in the Chaplaincy Team at UHMBT is a calling for Reverend Christine Brown.
Christine, who was ordained 14 years ago, has been volunteering in the UHMBT Chaplaincy Team at Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal for 25 years.
Christine says: “I had finished being a headteacher and someone said: ‘Why don’t you be a Chaplain in the hospital?’ God calls me to do certain jobs, so I started thinking about it.
“When I first started volunteering at the hospital in Kendal, Reverend Jane Tyrer joined the team as the Chaplain at WGH. We became great friends and worked well together.
“It was a very different hospital years ago. The wards were much bigger and they had a lot of older people in them. I used to visit them, say a prayer for them and sometimes even put rollers in their hair!
“Nowadays I’m on Ward 7 at WGH, which is a surgical ward, on Monday afternoons. Patients stay over, but only for a short time, so I don’t get to know people as much.
“I help to calm people down before surgery and they sometimes ask me to say a prayer for them. I’m always happy to do that and am glad when it provides comfort.
“The nurses are very good. When I’m in, I go to the desk first and ask if anyone might benefit from a chat with me. The nurses point me in the right direction.
“When I first started visiting and there were more older people on the wards, I heard some fascinating life stories. One gentleman told me he used to drive Beatrix Potter around on a farm cart. He said she liked to be in the back of the cart, presumably because she was a farmer herself.”
Christine is also a member of the Anna Chaplaincy which supports older people. It is an ecumenical, community-based, chaplaincy promoting the spiritual welfare of older people.
Anna Chaplaincy is a person-centred and non-judgemental ministry for people of strong, little or no faith at all. It involves visiting older people wherever they may be living, whether in residential and nursing homes, sheltered housing, retirement complexes or other private homes. For Christine, this means providing a link for patients from the Western Dales (Sedbergh area) when they are in hospital. She visits patients in the RLI and can link them with someone in the community when they get home for more support.
Christine adds: “I greatly enjoy talking with the patients and families. I like helping to cheer people up.
“One of the immense joys of being a Chaplaincy volunteer is you have time to really listen to people.”
Training, advice and supervision are provided to all Chaplaincy volunteers.
Frank McKechnie, Furness General Hospital ‘Meet and Greet’, Barrow
A friendly face at the main reception of Furness General Hospital in Barrow is what Frank McKechnie always aims to provide.
Frank, a former joiner at the shipyards in Barrow and a native of the town, is a ‘Meet and Greet’ volunteer and has been volunteering since his wife very sadly passed away in 2018.
Frank says: “I was at a very low ebb when I lost my wife. I had a couple of friends who were volunteers and they suggested I try it.
“I really enjoy volunteering on the Meet and Greet. I’m not someone who has a solemn face – I like to have a laugh with the patients, visitors and the staff. Lots of the doctors and nurses know me and we have a joke with each other.
“I’m one of those people who can’t sit down and not be doing something, so the Meet and Greet is good for me. I can show people where different places in the hospital are.
“You get to meet a lot of people and make friends. I like to make people happy. People often say thank you and give me a big hug because I go out of my way to help them. They are very grateful.
“I have also taught a few other volunteers the ropes on the Meet and Greet. When it was the 40th anniversary of the hospital, I volunteered to help at the special event. It was a proud moment for me.
“I would recommend volunteering to people – you just have to like talking and listening to people, and to be friendly.
“Sometimes people come in and they are a bundle of nerves. I help to put their mind at rest. Because I know the doctors and nurses, I speak highly of them to the patients and this reassures them. The other day a patient came up to me, gave me a hug and said ‘thanks mate’ on his way out of the hospital. He’d been very worried before his appointment but I had calmed him down.
“I intend to keep volunteering – I love it!”
Christine Waters, Queen Victoria Hospital tea bar, Morecambe
Thirty years of volunteering has been an immensely rewarding and enjoyable experience for Christine Waters.
Christine, who is originally from Bournemouth and lives in Morecambe, volunteers on the tea bar at the Queen Victoria Hospital in the town.
“I have always enjoyed being a volunteer because I like meeting people,” says Christine. “In the beginning, my son had started school and my friend saw a Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) advert looking for volunteers for the tea bar at the Queen Victoria Hospital and put my name down for it.
“The tea bar was in an old part of the hospital at that time and was hidden away. We didn’t bring in much money at that time – it’s very different now. It’s an NHS tea bar now and it is well supported.
“When you are volunteering you make new friends – I’ve met a lot of lovely people through the tea bar.
“Every now and then you meet someone who comes in for a cup of tea and they haven’t spoken to another person for days. You have a friendly chat and you can see the difference in them when they leave. They feel better in themselves. You never know what someone is going through. Many people come back because they like the friendly atmosphere. It’s very sociable.
“As we are a cash only tea bar and can’t take card payments, sometimes we will make a cup of tea for a patient, carer or member of staff who doesn’t have cash. They are so grateful and they come back at a later date to thank us and give us the money.
“If a patient is confused due to dementia or another health condition, we watch over them while their carer is elsewhere in the hospital and make sure they don’t walk off. These little gestures mean a lot to people. It makes such a difference to them.”
The tea bar at the Queen Vic has 16 volunteers in total, many of whom have been volunteering for years and love it.
Christine adds: “When my husband died, I needed to keep occupied and the tea bar really helped because it gave me a reason to go out. I have two children and two grandchildren and they love going to the tea bar for tea and toast or a teacake.
“I would recommend volunteering, especially if you are on your own. It gives you a purpose and it is a very rewarding thing to do.”
Eileen Unsworth, Royal Lancaster Infirmary ‘Meet and Greet’, Lancaster
A caring, compassionate and dedicated volunteer who works on the main reception desk at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) says she highly recommends volunteering to everyone.
Eileen Unsworth, 85, from Lancaster, has been volunteering at the RLI since the early 1990s.
Eileen says: “I just love volunteering and I have always enjoyed it.
“I finished working for BT (British Telecom) in 1992 and I knew a lady who worked at the tea bar at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. She asked me what I was going to do in my retirement and said: ‘Why don’t you go on the tea bar’. I worked on my own in the tea bar in the old part of the hospital from 1992 until 2000 when the Centenary Building was built. The old tea bar was the size of a cigarette box – it was tiny and very busy!”
Eileen loved working on the tea bar but had to stop for a while in 2004 due to health problems. She rejoined the tea bar in late 2024 and became great friends with fellow volunteer, Marjorie Knowles. The two had many happy times together and Eileen says this is one of the special things about being a volunteer – the people you meet and the friends you make.
“I got breast cancer and that put paid to me being on the tea bar – it was just too physical a job,” says Eileen. “I went onto the ‘Meet and Greet’ on the reception desk in the old part of the hospital. It was busy because it was close to several big wards and departments.”
Eileen needed to stop volunteering for a while in 2014 due to health problems and was back volunteering again after a few months – this time with the Blood Service at the hospital. She went out to community venues with the staff collecting the blood and made tea and coffee for blood donors.
Eileen married her Husband John on 16 November 2024. The couple met 24 years ago and were friends until around a year ago when they got engaged.
“When John asked me to marry him, I thought: “I’m never getting married at 85! Then I thought: ‘I’m not likely to get the chance again, so why not!’ We thought so much of each other and everything fell into place. We get on extremely well. It’s wonderful.”
John, 92, from Leigh near Wigan, was a design engineer working on luxury vehicles, a coronet player in brass bands and he served in the Royal Airforce. The couple got married at St Paul’s Church in Scotforth and had a big party for family and friends.
Eileen adds: “It was a lovely event, never to be forgotten. Our honeymoon was at the Coniston Grand Hotel. We are both very lucky.”
She is keen to recommend volunteering to other people: “I would highly recommend being a volunteer. People are so very grateful for what you do. They often make a point of coming back and saying: ‘Thank you’. It’s a nice thing to be able to help people.”
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