Newark MP Robert Jenrick visits Beaumond House Community Hospice to celebrate the end of National Volunteers Week

Volunteers have been thanked for their dedication.

To mark the end of National Volunteers Week, Beaumond House Community Hospice, Newark, welcomed Newark MP Robert Jenrick on Friday to meet the staff, volunteers and residents.

Lucy Millard, volunteer co-ordinator, said: “It was a pleasure to invite Robert here. We have 150 volunteers who work as drivers, in the kitchens, on reception, as befrienders, in our shops, day therapy and more.

“Our volunteers are really important to us. It costs £1m every year to provide our service and we need to raise £650,000 of that ourselves.”

Mr Jenrick spent time chatting to the patients, staff and volunteers during his visit to the hospice, playing a memory game with the residents and also accepted a blue rosette to mark the hospice’s Be Bright Blue fundraising campaign.

He said: “I wanted to come and celebrate the millions of people who give time to important causes, and here in Newark I know thousands of people help different charities and organisations.

“Beaumond House is one of Newark’s most treasured local charities and cares for people from Newark and they are known for their compassionate and warm atmosphere and their care.

“I would like to say thank you to the people who give their time to keep the organisation going. We are lucky to live in a community where there are so many people who give their time generously.”

Ed Prasai, a former nurse from Newark, has been a volunteer at Beaumond House for 27 years.

She said: “It’s very rewarding and having been a nurse, you can explain and reassure them. I still find some satisfaction after all this time.

“We can still have a laugh and share stories about our families. The patient might be ill but they are still people.”

Maria Hewitt, from Collingham, decided to start volunteering for Beaumond House after her triplets started school.

She said: “If I’m struggling or having a bad day, when I’m driving here I can feel it all lift and volunteering here puts your trivial problems into perspective.”

Beaumond House needs volunteers to help run its new Collingham shop, as well as more drivers to take the patients to their day therapy appointments.

Anyone interested in helping should call 01636 610556 or email info@beaumondhouse.co.uk