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Volunteers’ Week rounds off with a visit from Havering’s Mayor

Palmers academy volunteers

Students from The Palmer Catholic Academy, Ilford with Antoinette Webber, Voluntary Servcies Manager, Councillor Jason Frost, the Mayor, and Councillor Lynda Rice

The Mayor of Havering, Councillor Michael Deon Burton, visited Queen’s Hospital on Friday (7 June), to join our celebrations as part of the national Volunteers’ Week.

As well as touring our Volunteers in Action photography exhibition, with photos taken by Havering College students, he also met one of our longest-serving volunteers, 88-year-old Edie Lay (pictured below with the Mayor).

The Mayor with volunteer Edie Lay Edie, of Dagenham, has volunteered with us for 28 years. She decided to become a volunteer on retiring from her role at an engineering company. She chose to volunteer at our Cancer department after her daughter Christine was treated for breast cancer at Oldchurch Hospital before she died.

Edie said: “They looked after her so well and the staff were so kind, that decided it for me. I wanted to say thank you and give something back.

“Because of Christine, I’ve always volunteered helping cancer patients. Christine would be proud, it’s her legacy.”

She was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in a special awards ceremony for the Trust’s volunteers last November. Read more about Edie in our In Conversation With Interview.

The Mayor, who was joined by fellow councillors Jason Frost and Lynda Rice, was also treated to a performance from a group of students from The Palmer Catholic Academy, Ilford (pictured top with back left l-r Antoinette Webber, Voluntary Servcies Manager, Councillor Jason Frost, the Mayor, and Councillor Lynda Rice). The girls sang and danced to entertain visitors at our hospital.

It was their first performance since joining us as volunteers; they will now be taking their talents to our wards to entertain patients.

It was an end to a packed Volunteers’ Week which had also included performances from school choirs, and tea and cakes with our Chairman, Joe Fielder. The activities were an opportunity for us to say thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers.

If you’d like to find out more about volunteering with us, visit our Volunteering page.

 

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