UL Student Volunteers

17/03/2021

We are a group of five student volunteers: four studying a MSc in Marketing, Consumption and Society (Aoife Phelan, Kate Woulfe, Rebecca Barry and Stephenie Leamy), and one in final year of Sports Science (Sinead Peppard).

We were delighted to volunteer for Milford Care Centre when we heard about the opportunity in November 2020. Milford Care Centre is an organisation close to many hearts that provides specialist palliative care services to patients with life limiting conditions, while also supporting their families, from locations across the Mid-West Region. In addition, Milford operates a comprehensive range of specialist palliative community care services for patients in their own homes and in residential settings such as nursing homes, community hospitals, etc.

We felt that this experience would provide great learning opportunities and we were excited to put all we have been learning in our courses to good use. Milford has such a stellar reputation so there was an extra sense of pride that came with representing them. In difficult times like these, rallying people together for a good cause became extremely satisfying and inspiring. We began promoting their annual 10k Walk/Run after Christmas and throughout January 2021 through Milford’s social media channels. With the help of radio stations, newspapers, sporting stars, public figures and of course the support of those at Milford, namely Anne Marie Hayes and Mellissa Purcell and Arlene Loughnane from the PVA Team at UL, we were able to double the number of participants in the Milford Care Centre 10k Walk/Run from the previous year.

We each found this an extremely rewarding experience and were delighted to contribute to such a fantastic cause. We would encourage anyone thinking of volunteering to do so as it can be a positive impact to the cause you help but greatly to you also.