Without this team of volunteers, we would not have been able to run donation days
16th November 2020
Submitted by Lianne Gurney, Dr Kershaw’s Hospice
This team of volunteers came together from their normal roles as receptionists, van drivers, patient escorts and gardeners to form a whole new team. During the pandemic, with all of our fundraising events cancelled our Hospice became reliant more than ever on the income from our Charity Shops. However, with the COVID restrictions in place we were unable to accept donations in our shops. This newly formed team of volunteers, many of whom had never met or volunteered together before, pulled together and offered their support without hesitation to ensure we could still accept donations from the community who were eager to donate.
For two days these volunteers, with staff support, welcomed the community to donate goods at our very first donation drive thru. It was an incredible operation, never run before which saw these individuals collecting donations directly from people’s car boots to be immediately stored and quarantined. While fully clad in their PPE and ensuring that everyone using the donation day was adhering to strict social distancing measures, the team saw over 200 cars come through and donate.
This was a completely new innovation and the volunteer team took to the challenge. Due to COVID many of these individuals had previously not been into the hospice for some time. For many this was their first opportunity to return and they did so with enthusiasm despite the new addition of wearing masks, gloves and aprons.
Without this team’s enthusiasm and willingness to jump back into supporting the hospice despite the pandemic, we would not have been able to run these donation days. We received many high value items which we would never normally receive in our charity shops and which will now be sold to raise money for the Hospice. All money raised from the donations will go directly back into funding Dr Kershaw’s Hospice and ensuring that the people of Oldham who require end of life care can continue to do so at no cost to themselves.
Being able to run these donation days in the way that we did meant that we did not need to impact upon any of the clinical areas or teams. The volunteers gladly spent two days outdoors so that no patient care was interrupted and the clinical teams could continue caring for those who needed it most. The volunteers managed to not only raise funds for Dr Kershaw’s but were so eager to do it in any way that was required to make sure that the volunteers, staff members, patients, families and the wider community were kept safe during the process.
None of these volunteers had done this before and there were no practice runs. They each volunteered to get involved without hesitation and smiled throughout a very busy two days of accepting and processing more donations than we ever could have anticipated. They simply put on their PPE, manned their stations and got stuck in as the cars continued to come hour after hour. There is no denying it was physically and emotionally challenging, with many people bringing donations from loved ones who had passed, some while under our care.
The volunteers on this team volunteered when we needed support with a completely new enterprise and as always they didn’t disappoint. They were absolutely marvelous and true ambassadors of Dr Kershaw’s Hospice.
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