Visitors to Outpatients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital will be well aware of the vital resource the Blue Skies Shop provides for some of the key essentials, but did you know it was staffed by volunteers?
Two of those volunteers returned to service this week following a relaxation in the Covid guidelines. Linda and Vera have worked at the shop for eighteen months between them, before having to take an enforced year off due to lockdown.
“I really like it. I have done shop work before. It is about giving something back. You get to meet a lot of people, everybody is different,” says Linda, a self-confessed ‘sandgrown’ local, who had worked in Marks & Spencer prior to retirement.
“I had retired and I was getting a bit fed up and I was already doing volunteering at Trinity but it wasn’t busy enough for me so I decided to look for something else and that’s when I got on here.”
Vera has her own personal reasons for wanting to become a volunteer, but again, it is the people who make the role worthwhile.
She said: “The main reason I wanted to become a volunteer is that I lost my mum and she always wanted to be a volunteer, so I am doing it for her really. It is a tribute to my mum.
“I like meeting all the people. There are some cracking characters come into this place, some lovely people.”
There are 29 different volunteering roles at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals. For any volunteering enquires please contact the team on bfwh.volunteers@nhs.net