The Christie Hospital Headstart rota always creates lots of discussion at every opportunity.

One LJW volunteer was recently asked to go along to Young Oncology to meet with a 16-year old girl. The volunteer entered the room to find it in darkness with the teenager lying in bed. The volunteer said hello and opened the curtains and asked the girl if she wanted to see some of her scarves. The teenager replied that she had one but did not know what to do with it. The volunteer showed her a few styles, one of which was with a plait at the back. She helped the girl put the plaited scarf on her head and then placed a baseball cap on her head and pulled the plait through the hole in the back. The volunteer then took the mirror to the girl, who when she saw herself, gave the volunteer the biggest smile and with a “thank you” said she was now getting up and going to lunch.

The skin camouflage rota takes place at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Hope Hospital. All our volunteers have been trained by the Red Cross and have to re-qualify every three years or every year if over the age of 70. They show patients how to use special prescription cream to camouflage scarring. Once the patient has been shown how to camouflage, it can and does make a dramatic improvement to their self esteem.

Reminiscence Groups

The LJW volunteers are taught how to get individuals to speak when perhaps they haven’t spoken to anyone for days, weeks or months. The volunteers learn that maybe a word, a photograph, a teapot or an old lace collar placed on a table can spark interest from an individual and very often that person is no longer in the silent zone.

As a result of this tuition, they are extending their service to include working with young adults who have been affected by bereavement and loss. The Care Concern services are offered to people of all communities.

It was the death of her father that allowed a client to disclose the sexual abuse to which she had been subjected by him 35 years previously. Care Concern helped this client confront some important issues: whether her mother had known, had her siblings suspected, and had they all colluded, possibly because they didn’t know what to do at the time? Care Concern is the North West Region’s bereavement counselling service.

A LJW member, together with other members of the unit established the Barnet Stroke Unit when it was threatened with closure. They found premises at the local church hall and together have been running the Barnet Stroke Unit. The unit offers its service to anyone in the local community. There are seven volunteers, three of which are from LJW. The unit takes people with speech problems and although they can be in a wheel chair they need to be fairly mobile. All patients are referred by a speech therapist or doctor.” The Barnet Stroke Unit has now been operating for over 14 years.