Macmillan volunteers urge others to give their time to help people with cancer
dailyrecord.co.ukLocal volunteers are urging others to give their time to help people affected by cancer.Macmillan Cancer Support urgently needs volunteers for its Buddies Service throughout West Lothian.Volunteers say helping people living with the disease is extremely rewarding and they would recommend it.One volunteer, Shona MacKenzie (51), from Livingston Village is urging people with a little spare time to sign up and help others.
The service supports people with cancer, pairing them with a telephone buddy, to help them feel less isolated.Shona has volunteered with Macmillan for almost nine years.Originally involved in community support, visiting people’s homes, she moved across to help with the Buddies Service after the pandemic.With a busy lifestyle and a new job, this type of volunteering allows Shona to continue supporting people living with cancer.She said: “This is a great way to volunteer if you don’t have a huge amount of spare time to give.
It’s only an hour a week to talk and listen to someone going through what can be an incredibly lonely time in their lives.“Quite often, service users ask if they are meant to talk about cancer.
I try to put them at ease and explain that we can chat about anything at all.“Some people find it difficult to talk to their loved ones, to family members and friends about cancer, what treatment they are going through and their emotions.
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