Volunteers’ Week is an annual campaign which runs from 1-7th June and celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK.
The week plays a huge part in raising the profile of the volunteers who regularly contribute to society, while inspiring others to volunteer too. Every year, over 20 million people across the UK volunteer, donating more than 100 million hours every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth in excess of £40 billion to our economy (figures from Volunteering England).
Anthony Nolan couldn't survive without the dedication, enthusiasm and sheer number of hours our volunteers contribute. Our amazing volunteers deliver lifesaving blood stem cells, support recruitment events, staff our R&Be service, organise fundraising, provide admin support and much much more… You can read some of their stories here www.anthonynolan.org/ourvolunteers.
We also rely on the thousands of donors who have volunteered to step forward to donate their blood stem cells to give the chance of life to a patient with blood cancer who desperately needs a transplant.
Anthony Nolan would like to thank every single one of them!
Our Chief Executive Henny Braund said: “Volunteering is at the essence of everything we do at Anthony Nolan. In 1974, Shirley Nolan called upon the goodwill of the British public to help her set up the first register of stem cell donors in the world in the hope of finding a match for her son Anthony. Now, nearly 40 years on we continue to call on that same goodwill to make amazing links between people, giving hope to those with blood cancer. Every day our remarkable volunteers are willing to donate their stem cells to save the life of a stranger.
Whether it’s people volunteering to donate or deliver life-giving stem cells to patients around the world, mothers who donate their baby’s umbilical cord, our fundraisers participating in events, or those that help us to recruit more people to the register, there’s no end of amazing work that our volunteers do. I’m so grateful to our volunteers for their amazing work, they’re critical to our ability to save lives.”
For more information about how you can get involved, please visit www.anthonynolan.org/volunteer.