18 June 2024
Alan Thomas, aged 89, has volunteered for Harbour Hospice for an impressive 30 years. Apart from his marriage of 66 years to his wife Jill, it’s the longest commitment he’s ever made, he jokes.
What has kept this Silverdale-based former businessman loyal to hospice for so long is the feeling he is still being of some use. “I still feel like I’m able to make a contribution,” Alan says.
When he started volunteering for Hospice the organisation was very much in its early days. “We had one part-time nurse and we operated out of a house on Pohutakawa Ave, Red Beach, that a local family, the James family, had gifted to hospice for next to nothing.
“The volunteers did everything,” he recalls. “Until hospice began expanding so much it needed its own vehicles and paid staff – and a bigger site - to meet the needs of the community.”
Alan’s first role was creating rosters for volunteers, then coordinating the drivers taking patients to and from appointments, and eventually he began driving patients himself.
“On the car rides I always let the patients dictate what we talked about,” he says. “Sometimes they didn’t want to talk at all, especially after treatment. I considered my job done if they fell asleep on the way home. Hopefully that meant they felt relaxed with me.”
When Hospice launched its Men’s Group for bereaved men 15 years ago, Alan began helping out with that. He says he finds this role particularly rewarding because he’s watched grieving men form friendships and gain the confidence to become part of their community again. He puts it down to being able to talk freely with others in similar situations.
Alan has also helped in the hospice kitchen, mainly as “chief washer upperer”. “Whatever needs doing, I’ll do it,” he says. “If I'm doing something then I’m taking a load off somebody else.”
The grandfather of two and great grandfather of five has no intention of stopping as a volunteer any time soon. “Hospice is a wonderful organisation and the staff and volunteers are a wonderful group. I've been privileged to be involved.”
This story was first published in Hibiscus Matters. If you’d like to become a Harbour Hospice volunteer please contact our volunteer services team by emailing volunteer@harbourhospice.org.nz.
