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Friends Voices

Stories of volunteers supporting the health service since 1949

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80 results

Margaret Bray and Jean Prior, The League of Friends of Bridgnorth Community Hospital

Margaret and Jean met as dinner ladies at the local school. They have been best of friends ever since. They got involved with the Bridgnorth Hospital League of Friends after leaving work. They talk about their time pushing trolleys around the wards w...

Story: Jean Prior, Margaret Bray - Shropshire, West Midlands

Julia Davies, The League of Friends of Bridgnorth Community Hospital

Julia Davies started her career as a nurse at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. In her 30s, she moved over to Bridgnorth Hospital as a Senior Enrolled Nurse. From there, the moved to another hospital and eventually ended up teaching at Staffs University.As ...

Story: Julia Davies - Shropshire, West Midlands

Sarah Jenkins, League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital

After numerous volunteering experiences, including with a youth organisation Sarah took on the role of Chair of the League of Friends at Glangwili Hospital. As Chair, her role involves a wide range of tasks: maintaining order during meetings, orga...

Story: Sarah Jenkins - Carmarthen, Wales

Linda Widdows, The League of Friends of Bridgnorth Community Hospital

Linda originally became involved with the hospital following plans to close cottage hospitals in the area. Having experienced the care that the hospital provided to her close family members she realised this would be detrimental to the local communit...

Story: Linda Widdows - Bridgnorth

Riki Bill, Friends of Milliner House

For most of her life, Riki has been involved either with schools or with care homes. She also studied psychology for 3 years, knowing that she would end up working in the care sector.  While she is now volunteering as a school reader in liter...

Story: Riki Bill - Bedfordshire, Luton

This story is about:

  1. Care
  2. Care homes
  3. School work

Arthur Phillips, League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital

Arthur Phillips became a member of the League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital in Wales almost by accident, when he found his Treasurer role with the group came as part of his new role as deacon in the local chapel in Carmarthen.Volunteering hadn’t...

Story: Arthur Phillips - Carmarthen

This story is about:

  1. Fundraising
  2. Volunteering

Bridget Foley, Attend

Bridget started volunteering very early on when she accompanied her Mum to Church, where they arranged flowers, handed out hymn books and mended curtains. As she got older she took on these and other tasks within the church and continued throughout h...

Story: Bridget Foley - London

This story is about:

  1. Chair
  2. Committee
  3. Trustee
  4. Volunteering

Stephen and Pauline Redman, Friends of Amarna House

Steve is a Christian minister in the City of York, and his wife, Pauline, is a secondary school teacher. Steve is the Chairman of the Friends of Amarna House, and the cancer charity Candlelighters, and they have both been involved in the community fo...

Story: Stephen and Pauline Redman - York

Richard Miller, Friends of Horse Fair

Born in South Wales, Richard moved to the south of England at a young age and then spent 20 years in and around the south, firstly in Sidcup and then in Lewes, East Sussex. He met his wife in 1984 while she was doing her nurse training, and after acc...

Story: Richard Miller - Rugeley, Staffordshire

Glenys Jones, The Llanelli & District League of Hospital Friends

Glenys Jones shares her journey with the Prince Philip Hospital’s League of Friends in Llanelli. Inspired by her late friend Jean Evans, she began volunteering around 2002-2003, after retiring from teaching. Glenys started participating in committe...

Story: Glenys Jones - Llanelli, South Wales

Yvonne Frost and Carol Watson, St. Oswald’s Hospital League of Friends

Retired nurses, Yvonne Frost and Carol Watson, reflect on their years at St. Oswald’s Hospital, sharing memories of their care, community, and the close relationships they built with their patients. After retiring, they continue their involvement t...

Story: Carol Watson, Yvonne Frost - Ashbourne, Derbyshire

Peter and Mary Jones, Friends of Avery Place

Peter and Mary Jones reflect on their lifelong commitment to volunteering, both through their church and in their wider community. Mary, a trained pediatrician and retired general practitioner, and Peter, a minister in the Church of England, have spe...

Story: Peter and Mary Jones - East Midlands, Nottingham

Robert Fox (Kath Fox), The League of Friends of Deeside Community Hospital

Following her death, Robert Fox talks about the life of his Mum, Kath. Robert tells of her early life as the daughter of a miner, and gives insights into both the challenges of that life, as well as Kath and her families determination to take adva...

Story: - Deeside

Kevin Madge, Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends

Kevin has been an active part of the community since he was 18 years old. He talks about his involvement with the Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends as well as his career full of public service.He is currently the Chair of Carmarthenshire County...

Story: Cllr Kevin Madge - Amman Valley, Wales

Megan Jolly, The League of Friends of the Deeside Community Hospital

From an early age Megan helped others and this led to a life long career in nursing. Alongside this she began helping with the League of Friends, an involvement that spans over 50 years....

Story: Megan Jolly - Deeside

Sally Davies, The League of Friends of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital

Sally started volunteering at the League of Friends around 25 years ago, after 10 years of volunteering with adults who wanted to improve their literacy skills. When she started, she was mainly volunteering with the fundraising committee of the hospi...

Story: Sally Davies - Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Pamela Morton OBE, Friends of York Hospitals

At an early age Pam began volunteering to help refugees, at the end of the Second World War. Those values were to stay with her, not only in her career as a teacher but also through the many different volunteering initiatives she enthusiastically emb...

Story: - York

An image of Lord Lingfield handing a volunteer her awardDelyth Evans MBE, League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital

Contributing to numerous charities since the 1980s, Delyth has been involved in her community for a long time. After some time, she saw an opportunity to volunteer at the League of Friends of Glangwili Hospital, which she took, and became the new Tre...

Story: Delyth Evans MBE - Glangwili, Wales

Barbara Wren, Brentwood Community Hospital League of Friends

Barbara started her career as a bursar at a local school. During her time there she found herself going above and beyond for the students. She took that work ethic with her to the Highwood Hospital and then to the Brentwood Community Hospital.She use...

Story: Barbara Wren - Brentwood, Essex

Matthew Swan BEM, Friends of Larchwood

Matthew first got involved with Attend over twenty years ago, and also serves as the Treasurer for Friends of Larchwood. He was awarded a BEM in 2020 for his contributions to local charities.Matthew has worked in banking for over 41 years and has thr...

Story: Matthew Swan - Colchester, Essex