Submitted by Chris
\nVolunteer and Duty Manager<\/p>\n
In these unprecedented times with people struggling to try and cope, there are stories of hope and adapting.<\/p>\n
My story is that on returning from a couple years of volunteering and travelling in Asia – I’m 61 – I returned to the UK at the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Having previously been in the hospitality industry, lockdown made that impossible to return to. Like hundreds of thousands of others, I answered the NHS call for volunteers.<\/p>\n
Firstly in Worthing as a volunteer then over to Brighton, as a bank porter.<\/p>\n
When I started volunteering, I went from 20, 30 then 40 hours+. At the Royal Sussex County Hospital I was offered the chance to go full time.<\/p>\n
Having seen how incredible the work the NHS does, I jumped at the chance. Being full time the training was more involved, and included working in different departments, including Covid wards.<\/p>\n
A complete curve ball got me into a profession that was, for me, life changing.<\/p>\n
I look forward to going into work every day and trying to make a difference. You get to know the longer stay patients. Nothing gives a porter more pride than taking a worried, nervous patient to a procedure or scan lifting their spirits and on returning them to the ward seeing a more relaxed smiling person.<\/p>\n
I have now been promoted to the management team but still heavily involved on portering. I think we can all see that unemployment is going to be an issue and will probably get a lot worse, my message, look at the NHS for a lasting career change. I did with no regrets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In these unprecedented times with people struggling to try and cope with Covid there are stories of hope and adapting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":5001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[145,151,144],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n