Volunteer couple celebrate 15 years

This month, two of our wonderful volunteers, Beverley and Ian, are celebrating two milestones – 15 years of volunteering with the Children’s Hospital Foundation and 27 years of marriage.

If you regularly visit the Queensland Children’s Hospital you may recognise their smiling faces. When families arrive at the hospital worried or confused, volunteers like Bev and Ian are ready and waiting at the Level 2 reception, to help them navigate the hospital and show them where to go.

Over the past 12 months way-finding volunteers have assisted more than 45,000 families in the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Between the husband and wife duo, they have given almost 4,000 hours of their time at the former Royal Children’s Hospital and now at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

“We decided to sign up to volunteer at the Royal Children’s Hospital when a close friend’s daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia. We had just sold our business and thought it would be a good way of giving back,” Bev said.

“We see families, often with a few children in tow, come into the hospital looking highly stressed and anxious. When you take them where they need to go and they say ‘thank you’ you can see the appreciation on their faces. It means so much to them so it means a lot to us too. We get so much more out of volunteering than what we give. We come into the hospital and see what these families are going through and it makes us appreciate what we have – they inspire us,” Ian said.

“We live by the motto, ‘It’s more blessed to give then to receive’,” Bev said. “And you can never outgive,” added Ian.

Thank you, Ian and Bev, for giving your time so generously to help brighten the lives of sick kids and their families.

For information on how you can volunteer at the Queensland Children’s Hospital or community sites throughout Brisbane, visit https://childrens.org.au/ways-to-give/volunteer/