One of our youngest volunteers, and Chief Executive of the World Youth Organisation, Kieran Goodwin, has written a blog post about the lack of young volunteers in hospitals and care homes despite how rewarding, interesting and diverse the job can be.

He volunteers at our Trust twice a week on one of our respiratory wards, assisting staff with mealtimes, talking with patients and generally helping out where he can.

Despite our large, hard-working volunteer base, he has noticed that very few are his own age and recognises the importantance of encouraging other young people to get involved.

Kieran talks about the importance of volunteering, not only for young people, as it offers the chance to make a difference to a patient's day whilst also offering experience that may contribute to future employment. But for the patient, who may be feeling bored, isolated or possibly even lonely whilst they are in hospital. Some patients do not have family or friends who are able to visit them and by volunteering you are able to help provide some relief from this through conversation and empathy.

As Kieran says, there are often fascinating stories to be told.

You can read his post here on the World Youth Organisation website.

To find out more about volunteering at our Trust, please read our webpage here.