This #BefriendingWeek we’d like to highlight one of our dedicated volunteer befrienders, Ann. Our team of befrienders give a couple of hours of their time each week to phone or visit a lonely and isolated older adult in their community, to chat and provide support.
Ann has been volunteering with Glasgow’s Golden Generation for over a year now, having worked most of her career in the care sector and she has always been passionate about helping older adults. She first heard about befriending from her clients in care homes using a similar service and saw what a difference it made to their lives. Ann would have always loved to have been involved but didn’t have the time. When she retired, she wasn’t ready to give it all up and saw volunteering as a befriender with GGG as a way to continue helping out.
Ann loves working with older adults and enjoys hearing their stories (especially from during the war) and learning from them. Her befriendee looks forward to the calls every week and was desperate to meet her, but couldn’t due to Covid restrictions. Fortunately, they have finally been able to meet face to face this month after two years of speaking on the phone. When one of Ann’s befriendees moved into a care home, she felt that she wasn’t ready to stop volunteering and asked to be rematched with a new older adult. Now that she has been befriending for some time and has built up experience, she is now keen to take on another befriendee to keep helping GGG tackle loneliness and isolation in older adults across Glasgow.
Her advice to anyone looking to get involved is to just go for it! Thank you, Ann, for everything you do. We really appreciate you and all of our volunteers and couldn’t do what we do without you all! If you are interested in volunteering get in touch with us to find out more on our website.
