In his festive column for the Cornish Times, Justin Leigh gives a grateful thought to all the volunteers working hard over the holiday period - and recalls his very first job in broadcasting, with Cornwall’s Hospital Radio!

It’s the season of goodwill, a time for giving, and for most of us that means giving presents.

But right across Devon and Cornwall there are thousands of people who give one of the most precious gifts of all: their time.

As a society we rely increasingly on an army of volunteers, people who willingly give their time to help others.

They are often doing so quietly and without fanfare, seeking little or no recognition. Sometimes only their closest family know they are doing it. They are amazing!

The fact that so many volunteers carry out such valuable work “below the radar” means that their vital contribution can

often go unnoticed by the wider community and it’s only those whose lives are improved by volunteers who truly value what they do.

I have been fortunate enough to encounter some wonderful volunteers recently and as always I was left with a sense of admiration and guilt.

Like so many people I find life is busy enough with work and family commitments. There never seems to be time to do everything and so any spare time is precious.

If I do have free time I am reluctant to fill it with something.

Volunteers often have those same daily pressures; yet they go on to give their spare time happily to others.

I am in awe of the sacrifice they make, but that is just it; they don’t see it as a sacrifice, which makes them very special people indeed.

I was acting as host for an online Christmas Concert in aid of the Cornwall Air Ambulance recently.

It meant I had to be in Truro by 7pm. I had been teaching in Plymouth until 4pm, so it was a bit of a scramble. But I kept reminding myself it was a one off, I wasn’t working the next day and so it wasn’t an issue.

During the evening I realised that some of those helping to get that concert organised had also come from a busy day doing other things and were now giving up their evening for a good cause, but the difference is they do that all the time.

Another example of selflessness came up when I was having a pre-Christmas lunch with some friends recently.

One of them arrived a little bit late because he’d got up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday to help with a Santa Run in aid of the Lions Club which raises money to support other local good causes.

Overlooked

He is retired, so it could be argued he has plenty of time, but he was also doing this when he was working full time and bringing up a family.

He has helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years to support Cornish charities.

In October I attended a conference organised by the Duchy Health Charity.

Its aim was to bring together health services, councils and the voluntary sector to find ways to improve healthcare across Cornwall.

It was a very positive day and will hopefully bring some benefits to communities that are sometimes overlooked.

But that conference was only possible because of the volunteers who support the work of the Duchy Health Charity.

I also have the privilege of being involved with another group of incredible volunteers; the team who run the hospital radio service for Cornwall.

I started my broadcasting career with them and I am now the Honorary President.

Each year I get invited to their AGM to hear about the previous 12 months.

It is one of the highlights of my year because it is an inspiration to hear about the enormous effort made by this dedicated team to raise the money to keep the service going.

They give hundreds of hours of their time to produce and present programmes for patients in hospital.

Their reward is simply the joy they get from doing it and that goes for most volunteers. They do it because they enjoy it.

But I do worry that can be taken for granted.

Many of the public services that used to be funded by the local councils or central Government now rely on volunteers to keep them going.

Increasingly it seems to be the fall back position when a service is cut, the responsibility gets passed on to the local community who then have to find volunteers to take it over.

We are lucky that so many people are willing to do that.

Over this forthcoming Christmas period there will be volunteers all over the South West who will be giving up time with their own families to help the homeless, the lonely, the elderly and others less fortunate than them.

To volunteers everywhere, I just wanted to say thank you.

Happy Christmas.