Sixth Form students give their time to Hospice shops

Seven students from Ashton Sixth Form College have spent some of their time volunteering recently in our Willow Wood Hospice charity shops.

Ahmed Cali, Adam Dixon, Armaan Hussain, Oliver Hutchfield, Nathan Nyoni, Alexandra Serban and Maurice Owhonda Utchay generously gave their time to support our retail operations.

The seven of them, all second-year A-Level Business students, gave a combined 350 hours volunteering at The Purchase and Donate (PAD) in Stalybridge, as well as at our Waterloo and Ashton-under-Lyne shops.

The students had to complete 40 hours of work experience each as part of their course, but they all ended up doing 50 instead – between 24th February and 3rd March.

Adam, 18, from Dukinfield admitted he didn’t know a lot about the Hospice beforehand. However, he learned a lot more during his time volunteering, including that the income generated from our charity shops directly supports patient services at the Hospice.

Adam commented on his time working at The PAD in Stalybridge: “It was fantastic. It helped me improve my confidence and other skills like communication and time management.

“When the delivery van came in, I helped move all of the sofas and cabinets into the store, and I carried items from the store into the van to deliver to customers. I also put donated items onto shelves and helped customers when they needed support.”

The work of the students not only supported the Hospice’s shops, but it also gave them opportunities to build their skills and gain more work experience.

Adam further commented on his future ambitions, seeking entrepreneurial goals: “I want to start sharing, like going into investments and start going from there. So just get a job somewhere, save up money and start investing it into various businesses.”

He enjoyed it so much that Adam is continuing his volunteering at Willow Wood, working at The PAD on Fridays during his free periods at college. We wish him and the rest of our amazing student volunteers the best of luck in their future endeavours.

Willow Wood Volunteer Services Manager, Lisa Pye, had this to say about the students’ efforts: “We are very thankful for the amazing support that the students at Ashton Sixth Form College have given us. Volunteers are vitally important to help support the work that Willow Wood Hospice does. We’ve had fantastic feedback from the retail managers about all of the hard work they have done, and we hope they enjoyed it and taken something from the experience.”

If you want to learn more about the volunteering opportunities that are available at Willow Wood Hospice, please visit www.willowwood.org.uk/volunteering to express your interest.

By Ciaran Greenwood