21 June 2022
Helen Porteous is being recognised at this year’s Harbour Hospice Long Service Awards for 20 years’ service. She volunteers at the Albany Hospice Shop.
They call her Mrs Fixit - but unlike the Fixit family in Richard Scarry’s classic children’s books, everything Helen Porteous repairs doesn’t turn to disaster.
Helen is an accomplished seamstress who has worked in clothing alterations and even made her daughter’s wedding dress and granddaughter’s ballgown. She has volunteered for Harbour Hospice for 20 years – first at the Whangaparaoa Hospice Shop then the Albany shop – and she is the person everyone turns to when donated items of clothing need repairing.
“If there's a nice dress that comes in that needs a button or the seam has split, I’ll take it home and fix it,” Scottish-born Helen says. She adds the garments to the piles of catheter bags and syringe driver bags that she makes for Hospice from donated remnants of fabric.
The mother of two and grandmother of four (with her first great grandchild due in December!) says she loves being a volunteer. “It keeps me young. I volunteer on Saturdays when there are a lot of younger volunteers, and we have a good laugh. We call ourselves the A Team! Some of the things that come in, we have no idea what they are, so that starts up a big debate about what they could possibly be.”
She also loves rifling through the clothing racks. “Oh, I never finish a shift without buying something,” she laughs.
Helen confesses to being an “an op shopper from way back,” who began volunteering for Hospice because she loved her local hospice shop. “I think it’s the Scot in me,” she quips. “I’ve got a wardrobe full of designer clothes and I’ve not paid full price for any.”
As well as a wardrobe of op shop finds, Helen will proudly show you an entire room of thrifted garments that she’s fashioned into theatre costumes. They’ve all been picked up in hospice shops and repurposed for the annual variety shows that she and her buddies started up at the North Shore retirement village where she lives.
Helen’s hospice work is an important part of her life, made even more so by the fact her beloved husband of 43 years, Tom, died in Hospice care in 2005. Helen can’t speak highly enough of the care her Tom received at Hospice’ North Shore Inpatient Unit. “They were great with him. I thought hospice would be a sad place but it’s not like that at all. It’s clean and bright and the people that work there are pleasant. I was quite taken with the place altogether.”
We need more volunteers in our shops! If you’d like to join the team at your local hospice shop please chat to the manager in store, or click here to send us your details and our Volunteer Services Team will be in contact.
