Two minutes with ... Helen S

Helen has been volunteering for Katharine House for the last eight years, mostly on the retail side in Bicester. Here she tells us a little about what it’s like to volunteer in one of our shops.

What’s your volunteering role?

I have a varied role, which includes accepting donations and sorting, pricing and displaying bric a brac. I also spend time on the till. A volunteer role in the shops also involves culling items to make room for new donations and generally cleaning and refreshing jumbled shelves.  Customers, lovely as they are, don’t always put things back where they came from. If you enjoy more administrative jobs, you could work on matching up gift aid information and labelling bags with the appropriate Gift Aid number. Signing up new donors to Gift Aid is a very important role too as it brings in extra funds for Katharine House.

You can choose how often and how long you work. For example, I work Tuesday afternoons, Thursday mornings and every other Saturday all day.  

What do you like about volunteering at Katharine House?

I love every minute. It's a very satisfying feeling knowing that you are contributing to such a worthy cause. You learn to become more understanding of people and tolerant, and our customers love the happy atmosphere and welcoming smile and chat. 

What would you say to a friend about volunteering here?

I would recommend anyone to volunteer for Katharine House, especially in the shops. It’s just so rewarding knowing that you have helped to raise funds and have made someone smile.  

Country walk or city break?

I love walking.

Dogs or cats?

Most definitely dogs! 

Eastenders or Corrie?

It has to be Corrie as I hail from the north.

Katharine House Hospice

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