I joined WAY in February 2024 following the death of my wife Jilly. During her illness with a brain tumour, I became a volunteer with Macmillan as part of an online forum to try and support others in a similar situation to mine. A role I still carry on with now.
A few months after joining WAY a call was put out for people who might be able to take on the Area Contact role for Devon. At first I dismissed putting myself forward as I was still in the early stages of grief. I did quickly realise though the form of support I needed that WAY enables was meeting others face to face. As the role remained vacant I began to think that perhaps I could take it on and in that way ensure I could keep meet ups happening.
I had a chat with WAY’s Volunteer Manager who understandably was slightly cautious about someone in the early months of grief taking on the role. We talked it through and I described what I already do for Macmillan and we agreed to give it a shot. What swayed it was that luckily in Devon we have a number of people who have been Area Contacts previously who are still involved in WAY and who I could lean on for support if needed.
I think that when I welcome new members to our Devon group and am a new member myself hopefully that allows them to feel straightaway that there are others at a similar stage in the process. Of course as they hopefully meet others who might be further on in their grief journey they will get lots of support and advice that perhaps I can't offer yet.
I'm still very new to volunteering for WAY but already we have re-established some of the opportunities to meet others that had stopped. If just one of those meet-ups means that even for a few hours someone doesn't feel quite so alone in their grief then it's all worthwhile.
If you would like to find out more about volunteering for WAY, please email Veronica here.