This week, Nicola Horlick movingly told the Mail how her daughter, who died at 12, returned to help her grieving family. The stories you shared in response were extraordinary.
Volunteering can help support vulnerable people and be of great personal benefit to the volunteers. Like Lilian, Theresa and Hayden have found volunteering – particularly during lockdown - a huge boost to their own mental health. Theresa’s third year at university came to an abrupt halt last March and she found herself back home, with a ‘suffocating lack of purpose’. “I had no exams, six months before I could continue my course and no idea of what to do until then,” she says. “It raised a whole host of negative thoughts.” Theresa started volunteering for Afreshe, a charity which works with children, young people and adults of African backgrounds, helping them to build self-esteem and engage with local communities.