13th June 2025
In recognition of Volunteers Week in early June, Belfast Trust held its annual Volunteer Recognition Event at the Great Hall at Queen’s University.
The event recognises and celebrates the vital role that volunteers have in the Trust. The care and attention they provide complements the services provided by our front line clinical and nursing staff and the time and effort contributed by our volunteers helps make a big difference to people’s lives.
The Trust has around 300 volunteers performing roles such as befrienders, meet and greet, chaplaincy volunteers, peer support services, gardeners and musicians and the event enabled attendees to hear from a number of speakers recognising the important work they do, including Chairman Ciaran Mulgrew, Volunteer Service Team Lead Melanie Fitzgerald and Brona Shaw, Deputy Director of Nursing, Safety Quality, Governance and Patient Experience.
Volunteers Stephen Lowry, Claire Conlon, Rose Dowdall and Folashade Hunkuten also contributed to a Volunteer Q&A panel allowing them to discuss what their volunteering role meant to them as well as the impact they felt volunteer roles had on service users. The Rock Choir also performed at the event.
Deputy Bereavement Coordinator in Belfast Trust, Michael McMillan, was a Chaplaincy Volunteer within the Trust and is now working within the Bereavement Team shared some of his experiences at the event. Michael said that he felt volunteering helped boost his confidence,
“The biggest thing for me was confidence, and I think the Trust does a really good job of recognising the place of volunteers and that gives you a wee boost.
It gave me a lot of encouragement and good people around me to guide me which is really, really important and it’s been a really enjoyable experience.”
Heba Barghash, another of our Chaplaincy Volunteers, has been volunteering with us for 2 years.
Heba explained that she felt volunteering gave her as much as the support that she gives back,
“For me, I feel like it’s something that helps me integrate into society here. I’ve lived in Northern Ireland for seven years now, so I think something like this gives me more friends and it also makes me happy, I feel like I do something for people and that it’s useful for others.”
Speaking about the event, Chairman Ciaran Mulgrew said,
“This is the absolute best of what our society is and the people who volunteer for the Trust are a credit to themselves and to their families and we rely on them enormously. And it’s great to get the opportunity to say thank you.”
You can view images from the event below:
