Volunteers’ Week runs from 1-7th June and it’s a week to celebrate all our amazing volunteers and the outstanding work they do to support us. We are sharing stories on our social channels across the week but we’re giving you a sneaky peak here of a couple of real stars.
Kelvin Tiday has been a volunteer driver for 14 years, bringing patients in to the Hospice to visit Day Therapy. Acts of kindness can mean so much when you’re going through challenging times, as this story shows.
Earlier this year, Kelvin had a phone call from Paul, one of our volunteer coordinators, to ask if he could pick up a lady from the hospice and take her to the Leicester Royal Infirmary where her son was in hospital.
“I was walking the dog at the time”, said Kelvin. “But I went home and quickly drove up to LOROS.”
When Kelvin arrived, he found out that the lady, Mrs Envis, had just lost her husband, Kevin, that morning. Her son, who has cerebral palsy, was ready to be discharged from hospital. Understandably, she wanted to get to him as soon as possible.
Kelvin drove her down to the hospital and waited. Before she went in, he gave her his mobile number in case there were delays. Mrs Envis rang; it was taking longer than expected. Was he okay to wait? He was. “I had to keep moving the van so I didn’t get a ticket. I knew they were being as quick as they could, leaving hospital often takes time. I couldn’t leave them – the boy had just lost his dad, I needed to stay and make sure they got home safely.”
In the end Kelvin waited 5 hours to drive them home, staying in phone contact with Mrs Envis throughout. “Volunteer drivers try to make life easier for people who are going through so much. I didn’t do anything other drivers wouldn’t have done”, said Kelvin.
Mrs Envis can’t thank him enough for the support. She said: “It was an absolute nightmare with my husband in LOROS and my son in hospital. I was so stressed, splitting my time between visiting them both. Thankfully I was at the Hospice to say goodbye to my wonderful husband when he passed. Then I knew I needed to be with my son.
“I remember one of the nurses asked me how I was going to get there. I said I’ll have to wait for a bus. She said ‘sit there and don’t move. I’m going to get a volunteer driver.’ And Kelvin came along and drove me there.
“He was really good and waited for us. He did me a big favour that day. His kindness meant so much. I can’t thank him enough.”
Well done Kelvin, you’re an absolute star.
Meet Rita who has volunteered for LOROS for over 30 years! Rita began volunteering for LOROS at our Market Harborough shop on the till and still supports us today by sorting and tagging clothes.
We were delighted to have Rita join us in opening the brand new Market Harborough shop a few weeks back, cutting the red ribbon to a bigger and better store for our community. Who better to open it than an amazing volunteer!
