Worthing resident Dianne has volunteered for our charity for the last 15 years. She retired from full-time work 20 years ago and now her “great hobby” is travelling: meeting new people, discovering new worlds, understanding new cultures, and tasting new foods. If it weren’t for the coronavirus pandemic, she would be in India now as opposed to the cold south coast of England.

Along with over 70 kind-hearted volunteers, Dianne will be taking part in our Worthing Cares project over the Christmas period, delivering hampers and doorstep chats to those that would otherwise be spending the holidays alone.

Dianne was kind enough to talk to us about volunteering with Guild Care and the campaign. Excerpts from this conversation can be found below.

If you would like to donate to our Worthing Cares Christmas fundraising campaign, please visit its JustGiving page. Help us brighten someone’s Christmas.

On volunteering for Guild Care.

My mother really enjoyed all the companionship and activities at Methold House and especially appreciated being picked up and returned home by the lovely transport team, which is why I drive the bus for them now.

I also currently volunteer with Home from Hospital, a marvellous service that helps people who’ve recently come out of the hospital remain independent in their own homes. Volunteers spend up to about two hours with the person once a week doing the little jobs they can’t do: making the bed, whizzing around with the vacuum cleaner, things like that.  

I started with Guild Care after retiring as I had time on my hands. A lot of it was filled with travelling and various other commitments, but I was looking for something useful and interesting to do.

Originally, I came in through via Carers Support. I stayed with Guild Care after Carers Support as there’s a great sense of belonging to a big family and the training I’ve have had is excellent. Also, there’s a lot of support as well. When days aren’t quite what you wanted them to be, there’s still support from Guild Care. Whichever unit I’m in at the time, it’s been there.

Dianne with the Boris Guild Care minibus

On taking part in the Christmas lunch our charity usually provides for service users. This can’t happen this year due to the pandemic, but the Worthing Cares project hopes to, in part, fill this hole.

One thing I’m going to miss this year is the Christmas lunch. For the past 10 or 12 years, I’ve been doing the lunch on Christmas Day. It’s sad that we can’t do it, because you look around the room and in there you’ve got maybe 80 people who would otherwise be on their own on Christmas.

On why she is volunteering as part of Worthing Cares this Christmas.

There’s no Christmas lunch this year. With the Worthing Care visits people that would otherwise be spending Christmas alone can talk to somebody. At least with the visits, they’ll see someone – a friendly face. It will remind them that they’re not forgotten people.

If you would like to donate to our Worthing Cares Christmas fundraising campaign, please visit its JustGiving page. Help us brighten someone’s Christmas.