George

How did you become involved with CHAS?

I first started volunteering with CHAS through the Dundee Fundraising group, J-Bay, led by Jackie. She’s a friend of mine and asked if I would help out.

During lockdown I took part in the 280,000 Steps virtual challenge, and loved it. Then Fiona (one of the CHAS fundraisers) approached me to ask if I could help out with some future virtual challenge events.

CHAS runs lots of different virtual events like 280,000 Steps in February, Run 100 in September, 12 days of 5ks in December, cycling challenges and many more.

What volunteer roles do you have?

As a Virtual Challenges Ambassador, I give a lots of encouragement to members in the Facebook challenge event groups. I will post things like a picture and a wee quote. I also like to post wee stories to help them along the way.

I also comment on member posts when they share their progress or share an update. The members really like it and I get a lot of good feedback.

I also volunteer within the Dundee CHAS Fundraising Group called J-Bay. I help out at the Errol CHAS Charity Bookstore & More store. They are open every Sunday and sell new and used books, games, toys and jigsaws. During the week I help to restock the books and toys.

How often do you volunteer?

When a challenge event is running I will post on the Facebook group every day and check if individual members have posted anything new so that I can comment on it.

How did you find it becoming a volunteer with CHAS?

Loved it. It’s very enlightening what the kids and families go through.

I find it helps me as well by doing something for the kids and their families.

What do you think is one of the best things about volunteering with CHAS?

It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know I am helping people. To be able to give something to kids who have a life-limiting condition.

Volunteering also gets me out of the house and gets me talking to people. It’s something that everyone should have to do – take up a bit of volunteering.

What would you say to someone thinking about volunteering?

I’d give them all the encouragement I could. It’s very satisfactory.

If you’re in the Dundee area you can come along to the Errol Sunday market where the CHAS Charity Bookstore & More is. Through that so many people have gotten involved. We started off with 24 of us, now we are up to about 40 people.

If you’re thinking about volunteering, you can do as little or as much as you like.