HIGHLIGHTING THE WORK OF THE HOSPITAL VOLUNTEERS FOR AECC
Coastrider Monday, 20 April 2009

April is cancer awareness month at the CoastRider with a special feature article each week throughout the month. This week, Jeff Wiszniewski talks to the hospital volunteer team. The hospital volunteer group for the AECC have been on the go for many years in other parts of Spain including the hospitals in Elche and Alicante. With the opening a few years ago of the new hospital in Torrevieja along came the need for more hospital volunteers.

The Hospital volunteers at Torrevieja are a multi national group of people many of whom can speak English, Spanish and French. If there is a need for other language skills, they can call on the assistance of others. The aim of the AECC volunteers is to provide patient and family support, counselling in a practical, emotional and psychological way. In Torrevieja they have twenty volunteers, who have become a very close knit team. They meet regularly for training seminars, enjoy social events and are heavily involved in fund raising by taking part in sponsored walks and the like. In the team they also have married couples who go out and visit patients.

One of the few paid employees is Laura who acts as a coordinator. When the team of visitors arrive around 9.30 am, each morning, they are allocated their list of patients that they should visit. The first stop is normally to the Day Hospital, meeting with the patients who have arrived for treatment. They and their family or friends are brought coffee, newspapers and magazines. This can be a welcome break from the tedium and monotony, of some of the lengthy treatments required, by the patients. Because of the close relationship that the volunteers have with the nursing staff, they are able to discuss many of the concerns that the patients and family members have regarding their treatment.  

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