After the Government announced the new scheme calling for NHS volunteers I felt compelled to sign up to the scheme immediately.

Without thinking of how this may impact my home life with 3 boys all studying remotely, I decided that this was a cause I could not ignore I signed up on 23rd March and can proudly say at the time I was one of the first 400,000 which exceeded the Governments initial expectations of recruiting 250,000 Recruitment to this scheme was temporarily paused on 29th March to process the overwhelming 750,000 applications.

I was finally accepted on April 2nd and have been on duty ever since. I have so far racked up over 400 hours of voluntary work. I know this sounds impressive but to be honest this only translates to just a couple of jobs at the moment helping people in the community.

The NHS volunteer responder programme has now evolved and I am currently waiting for my DBS certificate to come through so that I can progress to the community response plus role.

If I am approved, I will be able to support other groups in the community that have significant vulnerabilities. I am looking forward to seeing where this leads as although it is an unexpected path it is already very rewarding.

Alison Cox