Volunteering opportunities
CITIZENS ADVICE SEFTON
Can you spare time to help your local community?
We are looking for volunteers for our telephone service in our Formby office. You will respond to queries from people seeking advice and help them find a way forward. Full training is provided, you just need to have good telephone skills and be able to use a computer confidently.
For more information pleease visit our website
NORTH WEST CANCER RESEARCH
Each year around 148 people in the Formby region are diagnosed with cancer and a staggering one in two of us will be affected by cancer at some point in our lifetime. The good news is that today, thanks to research, more than half of all people diagnosed with cancer will survive.
Local charity North West Cancer Research has committed to funding more than £13 million worth of cancer research over the next five years, in the hopes of saving more lives from cancer sooner. Research it supports includes a three-year project looking at the role of the HPV virus in head and neck cancers and a clinical trial which will help improve the treatment of bile duct cancer.
North West Cancer Research is now encouraging people in Formby to join our fight against cancer today by coming together and creating a dedicated fundraising group, to organise events and activities in the local community, which will raise vital funds for the continued support of cancer research. The call is being led by Olive Cutts, a mum from Southport who has been raising money for North West Cancer Research for more than 40 years. She says:
“My son, George, was 11 years old when he was diagnosed with blastoma in his eye. The doctors told me he had cancer and that they had to operate straight away. They said if we’d left it any longer he wouldn’t have made it to Christmas. He did make it to Christmas and has celebrated countless Christmases with us since. The surgeon who operated on George, and ultimately saved his life, started his medical career with North West Cancer Research. At the time I wasn’t involved in any charity work. I was just an ordinary mum bringing up four wonderful kids, but of course, George’s illness completely changed my world. I knew I wanted to give something back, so I started fundraising for North West Cancer Research joining its Southport committee. I started off quite small at first helping out at some of the group’s fundraising evenings and social events, but gradually I became more and more involved. Getting together with like-minded people from your community is fun and fulfilling. You can give as much or as little of your time as you like, and any contribution no matter how big or small goes a long way in helping the fight against cancer. The money that you raise stays here in the North West and you can be reassured by the fact that North West Cancer Research keeps its overheads as low as it possibly can so the money you give is spent directly on research. That was a really big pull for me when I first started supporting them. The quality of the research they fund is also a big plus. It’s making real inroads and gives great hope.”
If you would like to find out more about how you can join the fight against cancer and set up your own fundraising group, then please contact North West Cancer Research by emailing info@nwcr.org or telephoning 0151 709 2919
QUEENSCOURT HOSPICE
The Queenscourt Hospice Shop in Formby Village opened on December 1st 2014 but was officially opened on Thursday 15th January by Mark Lawrenson, the former professional footballer. It is a clean, bright shop that has an array of items including good quality clothing, shoes, bags, toys, bric a brac and loads more, all items of which they are looking for as donations for their shop.
For Queenscourt volunteer opportunities please phone 01704 544645 or visit the website – please click here
HOST
HOST is a small charity, set up in 1987, which promotes international friendship and cultural exchange by arranging for adult international students to spend a short time in a British home. We are constantly looking to welcome friendly people on board who would like to act as volunteer hosts to these students, and who are interested in sharing their culture and customs for a day, weekend, or a few days at Christmas. I would like to ask you if you could kindly circulate this to your U3A members who may be interested in taking this unique opportunity to learn about another culture and country.
Thank you very much and best wishes,
Kimberley Brough, Deputy Chief Executive, HOST
Make the world a little friendlier! Small charity HOST is seeking friendly people who would like to learn more about other countries and cultures and share their home life with adult international students at UK universities. Young adults from many countries would love to have a short homely break and discover the real life of this country.
Host Kit Millington-Hore wrote “Meeting students from around the world is hugely fulfilling and satisfying. Watching their pleasure as you introduce them to our ways of living, particularly over Christmas, is extremely rewarding.”
Visits can be for a day, weekend, or four days at Christmas. Offering a Christmas invitation to someone who would otherwise be alone on a University campus can make a big difference. Invitations are urgently needed from volunteer hosts, no matter their age, or how far they live from a university. To find out more, or to be put in touch with your local organiser, please visit www.hostuk.org or call 020 7739 6292
MARTIN MERE
At Martin Mere we are looking for enthusiastic people to come and join our weekend team to help out with family activities and on the Visitor Services Desk.
Could any of your members commit to 2 days a month either a Saturday or Sunday to spend time helping families to pond dip, do a bug hunt, or do craft activities or to give information to visitors on the Visitors desk? If the answer is yes and you would also be interested in doing something a bit different with a conservation charity, meeting new friends and spending time outdoors please click here