There are many Armed Forces veterans, widows and retired nurses who want to continue to contribute to, and improve, their local communities for as long as they are able, improve their health and well-being, have a little fun, or make some new friends. They can achieve this by volunteering in their local communities. and we join forces with such people, and engage with them to find a suitable organisation in which they can deliver volunteer services to their local community.

Once initial contact has been established we meet to determine what their needs, capabilities, and skills are, and find a hospital or other institution that need these skills. We then marry them up with a Voluntary Services Organiser within the hospital, who matches them to a support function in the hospital that needs somebody to deliver it. Once a match is found, we’re ready to go, and at this point they formally become known as ‘Remembrance Workers’.

So what do they do in our hospitals? Well they may work in hospital reception, giving a friendly welcome to patients or families; or as a mobile information point, helping visitors who are struggling to find somebody or somewhere; or in the hospital shop, serving those little extras that make a patients stay more comfortable; or maintaining the hospital grounds and gardens. Linking all of this is our Remembrance Workers shared aim – to show a friendly face and to act as a listening ear when needed.

Our Remembrance Workers are drawn out of their social isolation and find a new purpose in life, something that improves their general health and well-being, and which can take the strain off our already hard-pressed medical and social services.

Our hospital welfare services are helped by having a pool of capable, and willing, people, who deliver patient services at no cost to the hospital, and which allows already-stretched hospital budgets to go just that little bit further.

And patients and family groups, some of whom we might know, have their recovery back to good health accelerated by feeling that people support, and care about, them.

A mutually-beneficial circle then – helping others, to help themselves, to help others.