A day in the life of a Charity volunteer

Meet Jackie, she’s one of our volunteers who works at the QMC Charity Hub. Jackie helps patients, families and hospital staff buy a perfect gift for a loved one, find out about fundraising activities and how to make a donation.

Jackie, who used to work as a civil servant but is now retired, works on Wednesdays in our Charity Hub and we spent the day with her learning everything it takes to be a Charity Hub volunteer.

9:30am – Jackie opens the hub and within 5 minutes of opening her first customer comes in! She starts looking around and Jackie greets her with a kind smile, a “Good morning!”, and a few questions to help the patient find what she is looking for. The visitor chooses a few gifts to purchase and promises to be back soon! Afterwards, Jackie checks that the stock looks presentable and is fully topped up before greeting some more visitors.

10:30am – It’s been a busy morning so far with families who are visiting patients passing by and saying hello to staff who are on shift that day. Jackie previously worked as a meet and greet volunteer at QMC, so was delighted some of her friends popped in to say hello. She even tried to convince them to sign up as a volunteer for the hub.

11:30am – We received a visit from our youngest customer of the day - Reuben, aged 6, who had an appointment at ENT. Reuben took a liking to our Nottingham Children’s Hospital water bottles, and he managed to convince his mum to buy him one. Reuben actually walked away with three water bottles, as he bought two more for his brothers too! Reuben walked away a very happy customer and he waved bye to Jackie as he left.

12:45pm – It’s the lunchtime rush with lots of staff popping into the hub to see if there is anything new that they can buy. A few familiar faces pop by and say hello and one staff member rushes in as her lanyard broke and she needs a replacement.

1:30pm – Once the lunchtime rush ends, Jackie has time to restock the shelves and replace anything that has been sold throughout the day. This helps get the hub ready for the next day.

2:15pm – Exciting moment in the hub! A patient’s family comes in after visiting them and are eager to give back to the Ward where their loved one is being looked after. This is a great chance for Jackie to sign them up to one of our events . The family tells her they are looking for something local that they can do around hospital visits and work, she suggests Hike for your Hospitals, which can be done around other commitments. They love this idea and sign up on the spot! Afterwards they tell Jackie that they pledged to walk a collective distance of 50 miles throughout June in aid of the Ward that is taking incredible care of their loved one.

3:00pm – It’s been a very busy day at the QMC Charity Hub and after the final customers walk away with a smile and a bag full of goodies, it’s time to lower the shutter and close up for the day. Today saw a wide range of visitors to QMC from young patients and their families through to patients who are still being looked after by the incredible team at Nottingham Hospitals.

Jackie was on hand to help all our visitors to find what they needed and they all walked away with a big smile and a promise of a return visit.

If you are interested in becoming one of our QMC Charity Hub Volunteers, please get in touch with Deb at Deborah.Morton6@nhs.net or more information.