Every contribution matters | News

Today (5 December) is a global day of recognition for the work of volunteers. The theme of this year’s International Volunteer Day is ‘Every Contribution Matters’ and today, we want to say a special thank you to all our volunteers for the incredible contributions they make.  

We are very fortunate to have almost 300 active volunteers supporting us regularly. In any one month this equates to over 4,000 gifted hours of support.  This week we celebrated them at their annual Christmas dinner.

Voluntary Services Manager, Chrissie Beard, said: “We are so fortunate to have such a large dedicated team of volunteers supporting in so many different areas. Our teams play a very important role, with the focus always on patient care and patient experience. The Christmas dinner is an opportunity to celebrate our volunteers and to thank them for their outstanding support.”

It was also a chance to congratulate our Royal Surrey Stars Volunteer of the Year finalists and announce the winner. Our three brilliant volunteers in the final were Alen Lang and Emma Randall (pictured with our trust Chair Joss Bigmore and Group Chief Executive Louise Stead) and our winner Ann Gallacher.

Alen has been a volunteer for some years based primarily in the Cancer Centre. He is described as “A great example of how vital the volunteers are to the trust and we would be lost without him.” Emma is a dementia volunteer who has “a personal and friendly approach.  Nothing is too much for her and she is always happy to be here.”

Our winner of the award this year, Ann Gallacher, has been knitting hats for our newborn babies at Royal Surrey for 20 years. Her colour coded hats enable our maternity team to quickly identify and monitor babies who are at risk of deterioration and support the regulation of the baby’s temperature at birth which is essential in reducing the need for admission to the special care baby unit.  

Congratulations to them and a huge thank you to all our Royal Surrey volunteers for your incredibly generous support. You are very much appreciated.