I wanted to volunteer for many years, but due to work commitments I never found the window of opportunity to do so. The saying goes, “every cloud has a silver lining”, downtime during lockdown gave me the space to evaluate my priorities and take action to seek volunteering opportunities.

Like most people I wanted to volunteer because of a desire to give back to the community and do something for the greater good. While seeking opportunities I came across Ring20 and was attracted by the scope of the role as well as the ground breaking research that Ring20 & Illumina were going to embark on. I was also impressed by the leadership team who interviewed me.

My time volunteering has been very productive, we have not only designed and developed a new website, we also made significant progress on promoting the work Ring20 does through our social media campaigns, raised much needed funds through a challenge event and am actively involved in applying for grant funding to support our work on mental health for the community.

If there is anyone thinking of volunteering my guidance would be not to hesitate. It is not only satisfying at a personal level but also a great opportunity to learn and grow, both professionally and personally.