According to figures produced by Volunteering England, 22 million people volunteer each year in the UK - the equivalent to £18billion of paid work.
Almost two thirds of those volunteers started volunteering because they wanted to improve things or help people, and the majority of those volunteers continue to give up their time because they enjoy the work they do.
Types of Voluntary Work
Voluntary work can range from serving cups of tea or working in a shop to treating injured animals and digging holes. Most charities in the UK use volunteers to help fundraise and to run activities.
In some cases, the general public may not realise that the leaders of youth groups like Guides and Scouts, or first aid providers like St John Ambulance are volunteers who give up their own time to benefit the community.
Working as a Hospice Volunteer
Rick Tyrer, who has been a volunteer for 20 years, started volunteering at the Severn Hospice in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in 1990, and then moved over to help at the hospice in Telford, Shropshire, when it opened in 2008.
"My mother was very poorly and the hospice provided such wonderful care that I realised that it was something I wanted to contribute to to repay the hospice for the things they did for my mother and for me. Without the hospice at that time I would have found it very hard to care for my mother," he said.
"A lot of the work I did to start with was to promote the hospice, because it was such a new thing. It would be to try to remove the myths about the hospice - that they were places of joy and love and not of tears and crying. You do see lots of tears, but it's tears of laughter."
Volunteering
The work Rick does now has changed, and includes giving patients lifts to and from the hospice and doctors' appointments, serving meals, making cups of tea for visitors to the day centre, and generally befriending the patients and being there for a chat.
Other volunteers offer the ladies a manicure each week, and patients can also take advantage of craft activities or foot massages, or just relax with a small glass of sherry before lunch.
Dealing with Death and Grief
But the nature of the hospice does mean that Rich and the other volunteers do sometimes have to deal with the death of a patient.
He said: "It's not always easy - it's very emotional at times, and you do have to deal with death. You recognise that it's been a great privilege to know these people and you realise that although you've given a great deal you've also got a great deal from them as well, and you know that there will be other patients coming along that you have to devote the same amount of care and love to so you're consistently looking towards the next one.
"There's some comfort in knowing that you've touched some part of the patient's life and their family's lives. We often get members of the family coming in to want to meet us as volunteers to say thank you and we've heard so much about you and that in lots of ways helps us."
Becoming a Volunteer
When he was asked if he would recommend doing voluntary work to other people, he answered immediately.
"I would encourage anyone to volunteer because you get a lot of help at the hospice and support from volunteers," he said. "I would say to anyone who felt that they had the time to devote to it, make that commitment. Don't be anxious about it. Come and visit and look around, and see what happens."
• For more information on volunteering opportunities in the UK visit the Volunteers Week website.
• Pam Griffin interviewed Rick Tyrer at the Severn Hospice, Telford, UK, in February 2011.
Pam Griffin - Pam Griffin is a journalist working in Shropshire, UK. She is interested in first aid, singing and playing music, history, and ...
