Volunteer of many talents marks 30 years with hospice

Alan Thomas, aged 89, has volunteered for Harbour Hospice for 30 years. Apart from his marriage of 66 years to his wife Jill, it’s the longest commitment he’s ever made, he jokes.

What has kept this Silverdale-based retired businessman loyal to hospice for so long is the feeling that he is still being of some use. 

“I still feel like I’m able to make a contribution,” Alan says.

When he started volunteering for hospice, the organisation was very much in its early days. 

“We had one part-time nurse and we operated out of a house on Pohutakawa Ave in Red Beach that the James family had gifted to hospice for next to nothing,” Alan says. “The volunteers did everything. Until hospice began expanding so much that it needed its own vehicles and paid staff, and a bigger site, to meet the needs of the community.”

Alan’s first role was creating rosters for volunteers, then coordinating the drivers taking patients to and from appointments, and eventually he began driving patients himself. 

“On the car rides I always let the patients dictate what we talked about,” he says. “Sometimes they didn’t want to talk at all, especially after treatment. I considered my job done if they fell asleep on the way home. Hopefully that meant they felt relaxed with me.”

When hospice launched its group for bereaved men, 15 years ago, Alan began helping out with that. He says he finds that role particularly rewarding because he’s watched grieving men form friendships and gain the confidence to become part of their community again. He puts it down to enabling them to talk freely with others in similar situations. 

He has also helped in the hospice kitchen, mainly as “chief washer-upperer”. 

“Whatever needs doing, I’ll do it,” he says. “If I’m doing something, then I’m taking a load off somebody else.”

The grandfather of two and great grandfather of five has no intention of stopping work as a volunteer any time soon. 

“Hospice is a wonderful organisation and the staff and volunteers are a wonderful group. I’ve been privileged to be involved.”