Earlier this year, Leeds Hospitals Charity launched its new hospital-based volunteering programme. Until 2024, the charity offered more traditional volunteering roles, from retail volunteer roles at its community-based charity shops and volunteers to support large-scale fundraising events. 

As of 1 January 2025, there are over 70,000 active volunteers across NHS hospital trusts, who have collectively contributed over 6,431,630 volunteering hours. 

The charity's senior leadership team has made a commitment to invest in the growth and development of the volunteering team, which now has six paid staff members managing the charity's volunteering function, split into retail, fundraising and new hospital-based voluntary roles. Now volunteers can support the charity through two patient-facing roles, as a wayfinder volunteer, guiding people to the right place, or a trolley volunteer, visiting wards to provide snacks, drinks and other essentials. 

Rebecca Baldaro-Booth, director of grants and impact at the charity, said: ‘Over the last few years, we have seen how the landscape of volunteering has completely transformed, and we wanted to adapt the roles we offer in line with this. 

‘It's no longer centred around people who are retired and we're seeing increasing numbers of younger people who want to gain experience for their CV, or patients who want to give back.

‘This prompted us to look at new volunteer opportunities we could offer to a broader demographic of people. We have had some existing hospital based voluntary roles, like our wonderful pianists and this felt like the right time to expand these opportunities and see how volunteers can make an even bigger impact through patient and family engaging roles.'

In September 2024, the charity launched a three-month pilot of a new patient support trolley service, led by volunteers, visiting wards across Leeds Children's Hospital offering free of charge drinks and snacks, as well as a listening ear to parents and carers. The response from young patients, their loved ones and staff on the wards was overwhelmingly positive, so the volunteering team decided to officially launch the service earlier this year, and it's now one of their most in-demand opportunities. The charity is now investing £35,000 to expand the volunteer-led trolley service across other hospital sites.

One of the trolley volunteers, Lidia Lunga wanted to give something back after her son received specialist care at Leeds Children's Hospital. As a single mum, caring for a son with complex medical needs, she found it difficult to find a full-time job, so this voluntary role opened up an opportunity that works around her family commitments. 

‘As someone who has been on the other side in hospital with my poorly son, I know exactly how these parents are feeling,' Lunga said. ‘When you're by your child's side worrying about them, you're putting them first and can forget to take care of yourself and feel guilty about leaving their bedside to just grab a snack or a drink. It's lovely to see how parents react when we offer them a drink, snack or even a listening ear, they are so grateful and appreciative and you can see that it just makes their day! The parents are so tired and having someone recognise them and their wellbeing is equally as important.'

The success of this hospital-based role was soon followed by another opportunity, to become a wayfinder volunteer. The charity understood that for many people, navigating the large hospital sites can be a stressful experience, so the volunteers are there to provide directions to patients and visitors to Leeds Children's Hospital.

There are now a total of eight trolley volunteers and six wayfinder volunteers, who have collectively committed over 561.5 hours, supporting over 5,353 people. 

Baldaro-Booth said: ‘I think these roles have been particularly successful because they appeal to a broad range of people and the volunteers gain as much as they give through this volunteer experience. They are in a unique position because they get to meet some of the people who directly benefit from charity funding and see how this makes a difference. We have had younger volunteers come on board who want to get experience working in a hospital environment to pursue careers in healthcare, to grateful parents who understand what it's like to be in hospital with their poorly child and those who have some spare time and want to do something worthwhile.'

The charity hopes to continue the success of its programmes, with ambitious plans for continued growth as new shops open along with the possibility of expanding hospital volunteers across all Leeds Teaching Hospitals sites in the future. This will help to benefit thousands more patients and their loved ones during some of the most difficult times of their lives.