News

Caroline’s Experience as Volunteer Coordinator at Cherry Lodge Cancer Care

4th June 2026

This Volunteers’ Week, we’re sharing stories of remarkable volunteers. Caroline Stevens has met some truly extraordinary volunteers in her role as Volunteer Coordinator in a very important organisation.

Cherry Lodge Cancer Care is a charity committed to improving the quality of life for those living with cancer, their carers and families. They provide a wide range of cancer information and support services, free of charge, to help people at all stages of their cancer journey. As well as nurses and qualified therapists, Cherry Lodge Cancer Care has nearly 100 volunteers assisting people from all walks of life.

Caroline Stevens

I’m the Volunteer Coordinator and Befriending Lead: we’re always looking for volunteers as we’re mainly a volunteer-led charity group. We receive no funding, so our volunteers are people such as the complementary Therapists, Counsellors and Befrienders. Any of our members that are socially isolated or have mobility issues can come to us and we can get them a Befriender.

What Difference do the Volunteers Make?

We have 99 volunteers in total and they vary from helping us with fundraising events through to reception. We have a shop in Chipping Barnet and we have all sorts of other opportunities: admin, website help, coffee groups and helping with any of our other groups that have prostate lymphoma.

Recently, I found out that one of our therapists is a reflexologist. When he was guiding a member through a session; he found that there was something odd with the bowel – some sort of restriction there.

 It’s a hands-off therapy, (it can be hands-on with the feet and the hands but otherwise hands-off), so then he found there was some sort of blockage there; told the member and they went and checked it – it was actually early stages of prostate cancer, so he’d identified that through the therapy.

We’ve had somebody recently who hasn’t been able to swallow due to throat cancer for four months. They’ve been seeing a hypnotherapist and they can now swallow, which is genuinely life changing.

We’ve got volunteers who’ve been with us for 30 years. We’ve got a Befriender, who’s been with us for 28 years, he has seen all sorts of people – he’s been telling me some fantastic stories, from helping those who not only have they got cancer, but they’re blind. He helps them to identify food when they’re in the shop.

We have someone else who has a learning disability as well as cancer and he needs help, just to understand what the doctor’s saying when he goes into hospital.

Through to our receptionists, who welcome people… I had it the other day where someone had come in who was fine. Then they finished at the coffee group, came back, and the receptionist was able to see that he wasn’t feeling particularly happy that day and guided him into a room. He and I chatted for some time and he left feeling really light and happy.

It’s every moment like this – people doing what they consider actually very little: but actually, it’s huge, it’s really life-changing.

Why Volunteer?

It just makes everything so worthwhile. I’m so pleased with the volunteers that we have.

If you are interested in volunteering for Cherry Lodge Cancer Care, visit: www.cherrylodgecancercare.org.uk/volunteering/

For other volunteering experiences, or if you would like to see how volunteering can work for you, email us on enquiry@volunteeringbarnet.org.uk or you can search our database here to find your perfect role!