Celebrating Volunteers Week 2024 

31 May, 2024

 Volunteers Week takes place every year from the first Monday of June, but 2024 is particularly special, as this annual event is celebrating its 40th anniversary, having been established in the UK back in 1984.  

Yet Colostomy UK was already an old hand at volunteering by the 1980s, having been founded decades earlier by dedicated and tenacious individuals who were willing to give their free time to supporting people living with stomas.  

Here we look back at national volunteering more generally, as well as how it has evolved at Colostomy UK over time, before highlighting the vital work our volunteers contribute to the charity today. 

Volunteering: A Long and Rich History 

As early as the 12th century, people across Britain were giving their time to help sick and disadvantaged people within their communities, largely provided through hundreds of hospitals which were established across the country during this period. This care was often organised through monasteries, given that charity has long been a core tenet of Christianity.  

Yet it wasn’t until the early 1600s that the word ‘volunteer’ first came into use, deriving from the Middle French term ‘voluntaire’, which originally denoted someone offering themselves for military service. The concept of volunteering remained associated with wartime over the centuries, but by the World Wars, it came to signify people within charities supporting the war wounded, rather than those fighting on the frontlines.  

National Volunteers Week is Born 

It was during the Second World War that Canada’s Women’s Voluntary Services (WVS) first suggested that the country show its appreciation to those freely contributing to the war effort, leading Canada to establish the world’s first National Volunteers Week in 1943. The United States launched their own equivalent in 1974, and the UK finally followed suit in 1984. 

Volunteering at Colostomy UK: A Long and Rich History! 

Although National Volunteers Week may have only been officially launched in the UK in the mid-80s, volunteering itself was established as a critical aspect of many charities long before this time, and Colostomy UK was no exception. In fact, the charity only came into existence because of the determined efforts of a handful of individuals who all gave their free time to build a supportive network for ostomates.  

It all began back in 1963, when a doctor specialising in stoma procedures recognised the importance of emotional support in aiding patient recovery. He enlisted the help of ostomate, Gertrude Swithenbank, who soon began making regular visits to hospital stoma wards to reassure new ostomates that life after surgery could be just as active and rewarding, or in fact much more so. Even though the charity was yet to be created, you could easily make the case that Gertrude’s acts of goodwill earned her the accolade of Colostomy UK’s original volunteer. 

It wasn’t long before Gertrude realised the scale of need amongst new ostomates for the kind of support she had been providing, and so called upon retired nurse, Frances Goodhall, in 1966 for help. Frances was soon giving her own spare time to the cause, but rather than offering direct support to patients, she set about securing funding which would ultimately lead to the establishment of Colostomy UK’s precursor, the Colostomy Welfare Groupe (CWG).  

Even at this early stage, the charity clearly had many diverse volunteer roles on offer! 

By the time National Volunteers Week was established in the 1980s, the CWG had teams of ostomate volunteers in place, all of whom offered other ostomates practical advice and emotional support around their stoma care. 

Volunteering at Colostomy UK Today 

Fast forward to 2024, and volunteering is still the essential backbone of Colostomy UK. Our work would not be possible without the dedicated support of over 100 volunteers, all of whom have a stoma, and give their time to help other ostomates across the country in a variety of ways. These include assisting on our helpline, acting on consultants for our published literature, offering support through our befriending service, sitting on the editorial board for our quarterly magazine, Tidings, and acting as Trustees. And that’s all before mentioning the frequent campaigning, fundraising and advocacy opportunities the organisation has throughout the year! 

Given our volunteers are so integral to our work, we take their support very seriously. All undergo the UK government’s official background (AKA: ‘DBS’) checks, receive ongoing training, and are overseen by Colostomy UK’s dedicated Volunteers Manager – our very own Ria Robinson. 

Interested in Volunteering for Us? 

We continue to grow our team of volunteers in step with our ever-expanding portfolio of work across all aspects of stoma care, so if you’re interested in exploring volunteering opportunities with us, drop our Volunteers Manager, Ria, an email at: volunteer@colostomyuk.org. We would love to welcome you to our team!