As our latest episode of Talk of Hope shows, Diane Fraser is a volunteering virtuoso! From being part of the team in head office to joining us at fundraising events, there’s nothing Diane wouldn’t do to help our charity – including tattooing children at Spooky Welly Walk!
Here’s six things we’ve learnt from Diane’s experience of volunteering and why she’s chosen to give her time to us.
Volunteering helps lighten the load
“I describe volunteering as lightening the load wherever we can and in whatever shape that takes.
“Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of work in head office. That involves me coming in for a few hours every fortnight – typically on a Thursday. When I arrive Chelsea, who looks after the volunteers, usually has some work set up for me.
“She’s often very apologetic that it might be a bit boring or a bit routine, but I don’t mind that at all. I like doing the routine stuff and as she often says, if the volunteers weren’t doing this routine admin, she or another member of the team would be having to do it and it’s much more important that she gets on with doing what her bigger role is.”
The team’s passion is palpable
“One of the things I really love about volunteering in head office is how everyone in the office is so passionate. Whether someone has raised £10 or £10,000, I can hear the excitement in the office and I just love sitting there and absorbing all of that.
“I’ve always worked in the corporate world where everything was always about the bottom line. So now it’s great to work alongside people who are passionate about something that is really important, something that’s more important than just making a profit.”
For Jean and Isobel
“I lost two very close friends to lung cancer. Jean and Isobel were friends from uni and they passed away within 18 months of each other.
“I was a little lost when they were diagnosed. I thought I knew how to support and help them but I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing so I Googled and Roy Castle came up. I called and spoke to one of the team and they gave me some really good advice so I knew, when I retired, I wanted to do something for the charity.
“There was never any choice in my head. It was personal and it’s the fact that Roy Castle is only about lung cancer. It’s the focus of everything – of research, of the people, the support, every life that’s saved and that for me was absolutely wonderful.”
Don’t let the weather put you off!
“The Great North Run was the first event I volunteered at. I even dragged my husband along. He had run it a couple of times so we thought this would be easy!
“It was murky and misty and cold, and we spent most of the time filling up the water station so we could make hot drinks for everyone! But we didn’t let that deter us. We next volunteered for the charity’s Defeat Delamere event, which is a 5K, 10K or 16K run through Delamere Forest.
“It poured down! It wasn’t just a little bit of rain. It absolutely hammered down! Even under the cover of the trees, it was still pouring with rain. But what was fantastic were the runners, because despite it being cold and uncomfortable, they were still running to raise money for us and that was so humbling to see.
“We stood there and cheered and so many of the runners going past said thank you. “Thank you, Marshal.” It was an amazing day, and then at the end we were given a voucher for a free cup of coffee and cake!
“Then the third event I did was Spooky Welly Walk which was ironic because it was the one event where the sun shone all day, and it was meant to be Halloween!”
The choice is yours
“I wanted to push myself and go into environments with which I wasn’t totally comfortable. That’s why, out of the four types of volunteering roles, the only one I haven’t done is retail despite me having a retail background (although, as Rachel says, retail is the only area I haven’t done – yet!).
“When I went into head office for the first time, Chelsea gave me a form to fill in. What I loved about that form was it said: Tell us what you’d like to do, what you think you might like to do and what you’d never want to do! Funnily enough, I didn’t think to put anything down about tattooing children at Spooky Welly Walk which is why I guess I was assigned to that activity at last year’s event!”
You don’t have to wait until you retire to volunteer
“I am retired now so I always thought this would be the best time to volunteer and give back.
“I think that’s the aspect of volunteering that I hadn’t fully appreciated because you don’t need to wait until then. You could be someone with a young family, or someone in your 20s and still get involved because so many of the events are held at a weekend.
“Now I encourage my friends that are still working, or that have got children, to come along because not only are you helping the charity, you will have a fantastic day out yourself.”
As well as volunteering, Diane is also taking on a fundraising challenge to raise money for the charity. In May, she will be taking on the Camino da Costa (Portuguese Coastal Way), walking 265km from Porto to Santiago de Compostela in 16 days.