Today is International Volunteer Day! This day aims to celebrate volunteers by raising awareness of the vital contributions that they make towards their local and wider communities. In this blog, our editorial assistant Amy-Louise celebrates the volunteers who contribute to the work we do in our team.
Here at Macmillan, volunteers are at the heart of our work. We currently have over 20,000 volunteers who dedicate their time and passion to ensuring that people affected by cancer receive practical and emotional support. Whatever your interests or time constraints, there is something for everyone to get stuck into.
You could: talk to others about Macmillan and our work, help out with events, volunteer with a local fundraising group, help someone in your local community, volunteer with a Macmillan service or in one of our offices, or you could become a Cancer Voice or share your story. These are just a few examples of the volunteering roles that Macmillan offer.
Here in the Cancer Information Development team, we have a variety of volunteering roles that people can get involved in. For example, some of our cancer information, like the booklets pictured below, include case studies on the front cover. Our case studies are volunteers who have chosen to share their story with us, and we feel that this adds a personal touch to our cancer information. This is also displayed in our booklets through our use of photos and quotes from volunteers who have been affected by cancer. Some of our information is also informed by people who have volunteered to attend focus groups with our staff. This is really valuable to us, and is vital to helping us develop accurate and helpful information.
Volunteers can also work with us in our head office as part of Macmillan’s internship scheme, which takes place three times a year across a host of different departments. As a former intern for this team, I highly advocate the scheme. For me, interning for Macmillan was a great opportunity to develop current skills, learn new ones, and get a taste of what it is like to work for an inspiring and successful national charity. I asked our current intern, Sadie, about what she’s loved about working with our team so far. Here’s what she had to say:
Additionally, a huge part of my role as Editorial Assistant here at Macmillan is to manage a dedicated and enthusiastic team of over 240 Cancer Information Development volunteer reviewers. Our reviewers work flexibly from all across the UK, using their own experiences of cancer to provide feedback on our cancer information. Here is a short video from our team which explains the process of reviewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKylvyPlhVg&index=7&list=PL4YhGgVzlQXhzq9V0giLwW5utIWZKkz4y
The feedback that our reviewers provide is extremely valuable to us as it helps us to ensure that our information is speaking directly to our target audience and that it is clear and easy to understand. I asked one of our volunteer reviewers, Joanne, what she enjoys most about the reviewing experience:
On top of this, I also look after a team of professional reviewers, who also review our content to ensure that our cancer information meets the Information Standard. This makes sure that our cancer information is up to date, accurate and reliable. From surgeons to oncologists, clinical nurse specialists to haematologists, our professional reviewers give up their time from the rigorous demands of their work to ensure that our cancer information is of the highest quality it can possibly be. Collectively, our brilliant volunteers who have been personally affected by cancer and our professional reviewers help us to make our information what it is.
This International Volunteer Day, on behalf of the Cancer Information Development team, we’d just like to say a huge thank you to you all!
If you would like to find out more about Macmillan’s internship scheme, click here, or if you are interested in the Cancer Information Development reviewer role, click here.
To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.
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