©InfoEd Owen was devastated when he lost his job after 42 years with the same company – but now volunteering for the Red Cross has given him a new lease of life.
The 60-year-old father of two, from Plymouth, was hit hard by redundancy. He recalled: “It was a pretty upsetting time – like a death in the family – and unfortunately I went sick with anxiety and stress.”
But then Ed signed up as a Red Cross care in the home volunteer, providing short-term care and support for people following an illness, and things soon started to look up. As he put it: “I feel I’m not only helping individual people, but helping the Red Cross and society in general.”
‘He’s my lifeline’
One of Ed’s regular clients is Mervyn Gagg (80), who suffers poor health and recently arrived home from hospital after a nasty bout of pneumonia. The grateful pensioner recalled: “Ed was my lifeline, really, because I was quite weak and couldn’t get out to do anything. He did all my shopping and took me to hospital appointments. He’s a very nice chap.
“Now I can get out to do my own shopping but I still rely on him heavily. He’s a great help. I consider him more of a friend than anything else.”
Happy volunteer
Having caught the volunteering bug, Ed’s now constantly out and about and has all his old energy back. Besides helping vulnerable people at home, he also delivers medical equipment for the Red Cross one day a week in Plymouth, and is training to become an event first aid and emergency response volunteer. On average, he gives three or four days a week to the Red Cross.
Ed said: “Friends say to me now: ‘You’re really happy doing the Red Cross work. You’re back to your old self again.’"
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