Volunteering: Meet the NI people giving the Christmas gift of time
- Published
Some volunteers will be spending their Christmas break giving back to others
It's Christmas - the season of giving, goodwill and, of course, a few presents too.
But this Christmas Day some people in Northern Ireland will be gifting something incredibly precious - their time.
Figures show that about one-fifth of adults here have volunteered in the last year.
Fiona McClelland is one of them - she'll spend her Christmas morning in the company of strangers.
A branch manager for the Samaritans in Belfast, she started volunteering for the suicide prevention charity four years ago when a close family member was struggling with their mental health.
"They had us to look after them and try to get them the help that they needed.
"And I just thought there's so many people out there that don't have anybody... it would be lovely to be able to do something," she told BBC News NI.
'The problems don't stop at Christmas'
During her first year at the Samaritans, Fiona volunteered to work Christmas Day.
The phones didn't stop ringing.
"I was expecting a lot of people to have Christmas worries or loneliness over Christmas.
"But it was a wake-up call to me that our callers' problems or challenges don't disappear just because it's Christmas."
Fiona will be spending Christmas morning and Boxing Day afternoon volunteering for Samaritans
Calls came in about every struggle in life, from financial worries to relationships, and, of course, those who were spending the festive period alone.
"It's such a time of festive cheer and family and friends, and for people who don't have that, it's very difficult for them," Fiona said.
"We're here for everybody and that's the lovely thing.
"It's an absolute privilege to be there for people and to hear their stories, for them to be sharing their thoughts and feelings with you. It's an absolute privilege just to listen."
This year, Fiona will be spending Christmas morning and Boxing Day manning the Samaritan phone lines.
"There's people out there who don't have anybody and I just thought, well, the least I can do is be there for people," she said.
Last year, 100 people volunteered in the Samaritans' eight Northern Ireland branches, and answered about 10,000 calls over the Christmas period.
"We're all in, we're covering the shifts," Fiona added.
"We're still there even if it's Christmas Day or Boxing Day, we're there 24 hours every day and we never close."
'It's a very rewarding job'
In Counties Down and Armagh, Carmel Shevlin spends six days a week driving cancer and dialysis patients to their medical appointments.
For the past 17 years, the Burren native has been helping out with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) as a voluntary driver.
These are people who will use their own vehicles to take patients from their front door right to the hospital.
And like most hospital services, they don't take a break for Christmas.
For Carmel, who used to work as a nurse in Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital, it was a way of returning to her passion for patients.
"I always wanted to go back to working with patients and helping people out, and always had a passion for driving - and just combining the two was the ideal job," she told BBC News NI.
Carmel Shevlin will be out and about helping patients to hospital over the Christmas period
On an average day, Carmel will take two renal patients to Daisy Hill early in the morning for dialysis. And while they receive treatment, she often takes patients with cancer to their chemotherapy or radiation appointments.
"You meet people from all walks of life," Carmel said.
"You're helping people to get to their treatment and to get to dialysis, it's very rewarding and you get a real buzz out of helping."
The most rewarding part of the job, Carmel said, is the gratitude of her patients.
"For some it's quite a journey and if they're not well, it's lovely to get picked up at the door and left back to your door," she said.
"You're like a companion for them, they're able to talk to you and you can have a chat with them - you're like a listening ear."
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, help and advice is available at BBC Action Line.
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