Tameside Hospital says a special thank you to all of its volunteers

Tameside Hospital say it is proud to be celebrating the achievements of all of its volunteers on International Volunteer Day 2020, which is on Saturday (5 December).

Each year, hundreds of millions of people volunteer their time and skills to help make the world a better place. When they volunteer, they help to improve the lives of others.

This year, many of the volunteers at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust - which runs the Ashton-based hospital - have not been able to continue in their roles due to COVID-19 restrictions.

However, a small cohort of volunteers have continued to give their time freely throughout the pandemic and support the Trust at one of the NHS’ most challenging times.

One such volunteer is Ray Astle.

Ray has been volunteering at the Trust since January 2019 in the Acute Medical Ward. However, earlier this year when the Trust announced that volunteer services would have to pause due to COVID-19, Ray was keen to carry on supporting patients in other ways.

He joined the Patient Experience Team, supporting them to ensure that patients could still receive personal belongings while visiting was suspended due to the pandemic.

Ray continues to volunteer on a daily basis, receiving and delivering items to patients from loved ones and making their stay more comfortable.

Ray says: "Volunteering has kept me motivated and I am able to give something back. It helps me engage with others both staff and patients. Doing volunteering has enabled me to still be able to care and delivering patient property has been great exercise."

Karen James OBE, Chief Executive of Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT, said: "This year’s International Volunteers Day gives us the opportunity to say thank-you to all our volunteers who help to make our Trust complete and to give our appreciation for the contribution they have made over the past year.

"Things have been very different recently and we are so very proud of how our volunteers have continued to support us and provide much needed assistance at a very challenging time for the NHS." 

Main image:

Tameside Hospital volunteer Ray Astle, taken prior to March 2020.