This Volunteers’ Week, we wanted to highlight some of the great things you’ve been up to over the past year.
Our volunteers are involved in so many incredible events, activities, campaigns and more, that we don’t have the space to highlight them all. But, to give a flavour of what your fellow volunteers have been up to, we just wanted to showcase a few.
What you’ve been up to
Since the last Volunteers’ Week, you’ve all been incredibly busy so we wanted to showcase a few of the great activities you’ve been involved in...
Helpline, research, campaigning and more
Our Helpline Volunteers have supported the Helpline Team in responding to nearly 25,000 enquiries, with 92% of those callers reporting they felt better afterwards.
Our Information Review Volunteers continued to ensure that our printed and digital resources were accurate, reliable and relevant, with over 90% of people feeling more informed after reading them and happy to recommend to others.
Research Network Volunteers helped us ensure we invested funding in the right research projects, with almost £3 million going towards 14 projects which addressed the most important issues for the MS community.
Our Fundraising and Events Volunteers supported 10 national events (such as runs, cycles and MS Walks), not to mention countless smaller regional fundraising initiatives, raising millions of pounds for research and the delivery of first line services.
Our campaigns community helped us collate more than 20,000 signatures for our open letter calling for changes to PIP assessments, which was presented to Downing Street earlier this year. More recently, many of our community joined a chorus of more than 100,000 people to sign a petition calling on the UK Government not to leave disabled people behind during the pandemic. These people help us amplify our voice so we can effectively lobby national and local governments for better treatments for people affected by MS.
Information events
Last year, 27 of our local groups in England delivered information events in partnership with local professionals, covering a range of subjects including benefits advice, symptom management and exercise. Over 1100 people affected by MS have attended these events, with over 80% of delegates saying they had gained a better understanding of local services they could use.
Our Shrewsbury & District Group ran a Newly Diagnosed Information Day with a difference, along with their LNO. The event ran with knowledge from, but without the input of, their MS Nurse. They developed non-clinical content that included exercise, nutrition, the experience of someone living with MS and work issues, answering questions such as ‘Do I need to tell my employer I have MS?’. The day was attended by 20 people. They received 100% positive feedback and had four new members join the group as a result.
All corners of the UK
#20sNotPlenty
In February this year council members and campaigns volunteers, along with supporters and MSS staff took to the Scottish Parliament to protest the PIP 20 metre rule.
They arrived with an ‘MS Kit’, which gives a rough simulation of a limited number of the symptoms people living with MS can experience, to demonstrate the kind of impact the condition can have on walking any distance.
The ‘Kit’ includes goggles to imitate optic neuritis, gardening gloves for loss of sensation an ankle weights to reflect the common symptom of fatigue. MSPs were asked to try on the ‘Kit’ and get some small idea of how MS can affect someone’s independence.
Adventure is out there
Our volunteer groups in Teesside, Doncaster & District and York & District got together to book exclusive use between them of Calvert Trust in the Lakes for a week in November 2019. They supported around 50 people to have an adventure break. Those who went loved the opportunity to try something a little different and outside of their ‘comfort zone’ and came away from the experience with happy memories and having made some great new friendships.
There are some lovely photos on the Teesside group's facebook page
The MS connection
A series of photographs featuring people affected by MS were initially exhibited in London in late 2018. The pictures were taken by Louis Browne, a celebrity photographer, and the exhibition was entitled ‘The MS connection’. Following some research we carried out into loneliness and isolation, which found that six in ten people had experienced those feelings; it showcased how living with MS can lead to loneliness and isolation, but how the right support from family and organisations like the MS Society can help.
In Autumn 2019, our Stockport & South East Manchester Group organised their own exhibition event in Cheadle, as several subjects of the photographs are MS Society local volunteers. The event also included a key speech by Richard Hawley, an actor on Coronation Street, whose character has MS.
Continuing through the crisis
We know that volunteers are continuing to offer telephone support, online social activities, virtual exercise classes, quizzes, choirs, knitting groups, mindfulness and lots of other services! All to make sure our community is still able to get the support they need.
Staying in touch in North Wales
Susannah lives near Pwllheli in North Wales and helps to run the Gwynedd/Ynys Mon Group. For those who can connect online, they’re running a virtual MS choir and weekly exercise and Pilates classes by video call. Susannah said:
“We’ve got an active group here in North Wales – in normal times some members take part in things almost every day of week. Our local group covers a huge area, which makes certain things difficult. But everyone’s now pulling together to stay connected during the pandemic.
"Over the last few weeks, I’ve been calling two or three people a day, to make sure they don’t feel alone, and to let them know about practical support available locally. Where I can’t reach people, I’ve sent a few postcards, to let them know we’re thinking of them. Several other members of the group are making daily calls too, and that’s what I find the best thing about our group – just how supportive people are.”
Aberdeen Group: ‘Moving online was relatively painless’
The MS Society Aberdeen Group have quickly moved socials and classes online to ensure that people living with MS who might be physically isolated by the pandemic can stay in touch and keep active.
On offer are weekly yoga, mindfulness and seated exercise classes, as well as a social group to ensure that everyone involved with the group can stay connected and active.
Ian Gourlay, the group's Finance Volunteer, said:
“To be honest, getting going quickly was relatively painless for us. We started with an online social and quickly started to explore whether we could run our classes and sessions online as well.
“The result has been we now have everything we had before available to people from the comfort of their own homes, and on the same timetable as well to keep the continuity.”
