Keeping in touch with our volunteers as we await their return
When it comes to selling cups of tea and cake to patients and visitors at Sandringham Hospital Kiosk, no one does it quite like 100 year old volunteer Frances Nicholls MBE OAM.
“Frances is always very friendly and loves to chat with anyone within earshot,” hospital Volunteer Coordinator Cathy Howard said.
“She gives the person she is serving her full attention, and if others become impatient, she’ll quickly raise her hands and issue a stern yet friendly: ‘Wait.’
"Everyone always listens!”
In a world before COVID, Frances volunteered at the kiosk on the first Friday for every month, and in 2020 clocked up 17 years of service.
One of the hospital’s longest serving volunteers, her contribution to the tight-knit Bluff Road community was recognised in January this year, when she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.
But despite the accolade, Frances is modest when describing her contribution prior to the pandemic.
“As volunteers, we were a fresh face for patients to have a chat with,” she said. “It was nice to be able to spend time with the patients who came down from their rooms for a break.”
Unable to volunteer for the last 18-months due to COVID-19, Frances is looking forward to the day when volunteers are once again able to do what they love.
“I miss all of my volunteering commitments. I’ve lost a lot of face-to-face contact with people and my world has shrunk considerably,” Frances said.
Cathy says the team stays in regular contact with volunteers to see how they’re going and to let them know they are still very much valued.
“There’s a piece missing when we don’t have our volunteers on site,” she said. “Sometimes by giving a kind word or lending an ear, they are the difference in someone’s day.”
“We can’t wait until they are back are on board.”
