Knowing that I’m with a community of people working towards something is an amazing feeling
“My volunteering journey at North Mid began at the start of the pandemic. With the news about Covid-19 constantly surrounding me, I refused to let the lockdown and not being able to see friends and family put me down. Instead, I decided to go out into the community and help in any way I could.
“Working as a personal assistant to the director of UCL’s medical school, I have various connections with the hospital. Many of the university’s final year students are placed at North Mid as part of their course and in addition to this, I often work across various hospital sites and therefore feel confident to be in the environment.
“I've volunteered twice week for the past year and have had various roles throughout this period. I started off a runner which involved delivering packages from families to patients as well as helping out with donations and property collection. I'm constantly surrounded by a group of diverse and wonderful people who are working towards a goal and ultimately helping the community.
"I was excited to join #TeamNorthMid. I wanted bring out my own skills to help the wider the community. Since volunteering, I have learnt a lot about myself, how much I can actually give as well as learning about the hospital itself. However, one thing I initially found challenging was seeing patient’s deteriorate but seeing the difference I was making to the hospital, patients, families and the wider community enabled me to look past their illness and focus on doing what I could to help and support as much as could.
“Having spent a lot of time with patients across the hospital, I built relationships with many of them. There were times where I had to collect a patient’s property that I had only seen the day before. Whilst this was incredibly hard at first, knowing that I had made a difference to a patient’s life even if that it was just for a couple of minutes gave me the strength to get through it.
“Throughout my volunteering journey, I have formed many friendships. One that came as a complete surprise was with Linda who actually lives across the road from me. Until I had volunteered for North Mid, I had never spoken or knowingly crossed paths with Linda – despite living on the same road for over 15 years. However since connecting, we have become friends as well as volunteering buddies. In addition to this, I have joined the hospital choir which has enabled me to be part of various performances and meet another set of fantastic people.”