Under the COVID19 lockdown, my RNIB volunteer work came temporarily to a halt and I wanted to help in whatever way I could during the pandemic. I initially signed up for the RVS scheme but when that turned out to be England only I looked for a Welsh avenue and found the Cardiff CVC and began volunteering through the volunteering-wales COVID19 community tasks. In such unusual times it gave me a sense of “doing my bit” and a genuine feeling of helping others and helping to make a positive difference to their lives.
Many people were housebound under COVID19 restrictions and the pharmacy deliveries was their only means of getting their medications. Some of the food box deliveries were made regularly to the same people and some became ‘once a week friends’ to have a brief chat with.
In the early stages of the original lockdown, I also put my name down for driving or porter at the Dragon Heart hospital and had a start date in June which didn’t happen in the end because of the falloff in cases but in early October they contacted me again to ask if I was prepared to join the NHS Courier Health Service and use my experience with the CVC to work full time delivering the home pharmacy for UHW, which I agreed to do. I am also now being trained to do lots of other work for the Health Courier Service. As well as my own sense of doing something useful and worthwhile, the CVC work gave the NHS a ready-made candidate for the courier service job.
If I was to describe my experience as a volunteer in one sentence; Useful, worthwhile, meaningful, and fulfilling.
