Mary Bolshaw’s astounding volunteering career spans over four decades and during that time, she has been involved with many different aspects of our local hospice. Mary explains, “My main role involves fundraising for Hospiscare but that hasn’t stopped me doing other things! I have volunteered in the Reception at Kings House in Honiton and driven patients to appointments for around 35 years.
“By trade, I’m a caterer and I’ve found that anything that involves food is a good fundraiser! From lunches and catering for Jubilee events to my more recent involvement in funeral catering, if it will raise money for Hospiscare and I can do it, then I will!”
Winning Hospice UK’s Volunteer of the Year award came as a complete shock to Mary and she continues, “I didn’t know anything about the award! Toni, Hospiscare’s fundraiser for
my area, arrived at my door about a fortnight before the ceremony to tell me. She brought me a balloon and a card and she was in tears, so then I was in tears!
“Being presented with the award was just something else. It’s so hard to describe how much it means. Since I’ve come home from the awards ceremony in Glasgow, people have been so incredibly kind and generous with their comments. Even though I got the award, it doesn’t lessen the fact that I am part of a team and we all play our part. After all, there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’!
“Over the past four decades, Hospiscare is the only charity that I’ve supported. I’m driven to keep the service running. It’s such a valuable service that is so needed and it won’t run without people supporting it. We can’t let anything happen to Hospiscare and I feel very strongly about that.
“To anyone thinking of volunteering for Hospiscare, my advice is do it! It’s as easy as that. I can’t describe the rewards of being part of a team who are so dedicated to giving their all to help the charity survive. It’s worth its weight in gold. We’re able to help provide a service for those who need it most and that feeling is worth more than anything.”
If you’d like to volunteer your time to support Hospiscare, please visit www.hospiscare.co.uk/volunteer to find out more and get in touch.
