‘I plan to keep fundraising for as long as I can – I love doing it’
From an old-fashioned nurse, to a flamenco dancer, to a ladybird – for shoppers around Edinburgh, an encounter with Marie Curie volunteer Stephanie Wint is always memorable.
Having been fundraising for the charity – which is supported by this year’s Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal – for the past 32 years, 67-year-old Wint is one of the longest-serving volunteers on Marie Curie’s books.
“It all started in 1991 when I was living in Aberdeen,” Wint explains. She’d been a committed charity fundraiser since she was 21, but something new came to her on the airwaves. “I heard this plea on the local radio for helpers to get involved in the Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal that spring, and I volunteered – and I’ve volunteered every year since.”
In total, Wint has raised over £60,000 for charities throughout her life, with two-thirds of the total for Marie Curie. She holds the record for being Scotland’s Top Collector in the Daffodil Appeal the most times: seven in total.
Wint began to turn her hand to costumery in order to start raising more money. “Look a little funny and you’ll raise a lot of money,” she laughs. “I’ve been fundraising for a long time and in a lot of different ways. I’ve done sponsored cycles, coffee mornings, helped with flag day and sold raffle tickets, but I like fancy dress most because people engage with it in such a fun way and it challenges my creativity. People’s reaction when I’m in fancy dress is, ‘We’ll definitely give you something for having the guts to dress up.’”
Wint is still not sure where her indomitable spirit and tireless enthusiasm for charity fundraising actually comes from. “I am in constant awe of the amount of people they help; especially now they’ve expanded from what they were doing when I first started, to encompass caring for lots more people with terminal diseases,” she says.
Though some fundraisers set out to raise a certain amount, Wint is happy doing whatever she can. “I plan to keep fundraising for as long as I can; I love doing it,” she says. “I like helping people. I feel that I’m doing good. I haven’t been well a lot of my life; I’ve suffered from epilepsy. It was once suggested to me, and there may be something in it, that I may be doing this as a ‘thank you’ for all the care I’ve had over the years. I think there’s something in that. Funnily enough, I have noticed that people with health conditions do go out of their way to do things for charity or for other people.”
Marie Curie inspires the altruistic streak in its volunteers, with many of them staying with the charity for years or even decades. Joan Woodfin will celebrate her 20th year volunteering on reception at the Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale, in Penarth this year after retiring early from work due to ill health.
“I had a bleed on the brain and struggled for a year after,” Woodfin explains. “My husband had passed away and my children had left home. I could either stay in, feeling sorry for myself or do something, so I rang the hospice, told them I was looking for voluntary work and the rest is history.”
Woodfin estimates that over the years she’s helped thousands of people from her position at the reception desk but says, “I get as much out of volunteering as I give.”
Specifically, it’s the chance to meet and greet visitors, and give comfort to those who are upset. “You grow close to long-term visitors; sometimes patients who are able will come down for a change of scenery and a chat,” says Woodfin. “They like to talk about their past which is always fascinating.”
Volunteering is “the best thing you could do,” she adds. “It broadens your social outlook in life and it’s good for your wellbeing. Sometimes it’s my fellow volunteers who keep me going; the housekeeping staff are much younger than me and they keep me young. It’s such a place to work, which people often don’t expect.”
John Abbott from Bexley, south-east London, is another long-term Marie Curie volunteer, having worked as a fundraiser in his local community for 12 years.
“I mainly get involved in coordinating local Marie Curie collections throughout the year,” says Abbott. “I liaise with collectors, organise time slots, tabards, hats, collection tins and daffodil badges. Things have got a bit more complicated now that we take donations via card – I have to try to allocate those donations to the collectors’ totals as appropriate.”
Abbott started volunteering when, after 40 years working in local government, he was invited to join the Crayford Rotary Club. When his time came to be president, he was inspired by his late mother’s support of Marie Curie and led the charge in supporting the daffodil appeal. “I was unaware at that time that Marie Curie was the second-biggest provider of hospice beds in the country after the NHS,” he says. “Over the years I have heard so many poignant stories from people whose families and friends have received Marie Curie nursing care, which inspired me.”
Under Abbott’s watchful eye, the Bexley fundraising group has raised £50,000 with an estimated £18,000 coming from his efforts personally. “It’s always rewarding,” he says. “Only last month I was collecting at Charing Cross station. Usually at mainline London terminals, the public are rushing to catch their train, but I was struck by the two or three people who really spent a few hours talking to me about the wonderful care and support shown to them by Marie Curie nurses after they’d suffered bereavement.”
For Abbott, volunteering has been an important way to “remain active and energised in mind and body during retirement,” he says. “I would really encourage anyone to volunteer. Marie Curie offers a huge variety of volunteering roles to suit people’s interests and skills, whether that’s working at a charity shop, organising events, or helping at a hospice. There’s a tremendous satisfaction that one is making a positive contribution to society.”
