We’re celebrating the huge contribution of our purple army to mark Volunteers Week, which takes place this week.

We’ve got 340 volunteers who give up their free time to help our patients and staff. They can be identified through their purple aprons and uniforms.

Whether it’s being there for patients as a friendly face, making cups of tea or providing comfort in challenging times, they perform a variety of important tasks.

They come from a range of ages and all walks of life, with our oldest volunteer born in 1936 and our youngest born in 2007.

Jacky Fulton, from Rush Green, has a part-time job working two days a week as an administrator in our Clinical Diagnostic Unit.

And in her spare time, she comes in to volunteer once a week in the Emergency Department at Queen’s Hospital, making up beds ready for new patients, befriending patients and helping to feed them if needed.

Jacky said:

I like helping people and I get a lot of satisfaction from it.

I chose the Emergency Department because I know it really well, I’ve got an understanding of what is needed and what goes on.

Volunteering is very rewarding, it’s a reason to get up, get out and think of others.

Kay Woodward is a Daisy volunteer at both King George and Queen’s hospitals.

She assists our Chaplaincy and Palliative Care teams by seeing patients who are very close to the end of their lives.

For the last four years, Kay has volunteered on various wards, including our geriatric wards.

She supports people without families or when families haven’t been able to visit in time, and spends time with patients in the last days and hours of their lives.

Kay said:

Patients appreciate that we can be there just to chat. It’s really nice to be able to support them.

One of the chaplains summed it up when they said: ‘You may only be involved in someone’s life for a few hours or minutes, but it’s worth so much to a lot of people’.

Many of our volunteers have been coming in regularly to our Trust for decades.

This includes Yezdi Maravala, also known as Les, who has volunteered for 20 years at our hospitals. He comes in around once a week to visit and befriend patients, usually on Mandarin A ward at Queen’s Hospital.

He sits with patients who are on their own in hospital without family.

Yezdi said:

It’s good that patients don’t feel like they are alone.

There was one elderly gentleman who was feeling that his time was near. He asked me to hold his hand and we prayed.

That experience meant he was well at ease. You could see his face brightened up, I felt I made a difference.

Stacey Turner from our Voluntary Services team said:

Behind every great hospital is an army of volunteers who give their all.

Thank you for bringing comfort, care and kindness to every corner of our hospitals.

If you would like to volunteer with us, find out more on our website.