A day in the life of… a volunteer driver

When 65-year-old Robbie Earl left work for health reasons, he looked to his local NHS trust for a voluntary role to fill his newfound free time. The mention of a driving role sparked his interest and he’s been a volunteer driver with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for over three years now.

Robbie provides a vital transportation service for hospital patients – helping them get to and from their outpatient appointments, delivering medication to their homes and collecting orthotics equipment when it is no longer needed.

The service was set up in 2013 with just six drivers. As the service passes its first decade, it has grown to 27 volunteers with more than 600,000 miles under their belts – beyond the distance to the moon and back.

We sat down with Robbie to find out a little more about how he got involved in volunteering and what being a volunteer driver entails…

What made you become a volunteer driver?

I packed in work due to ill health and I just wanted to go back out and give something back.

I was a warehouse manager for a long time. But when I had surgery on my spine and my hip, it just got too much for me.

I thought ‘right, that’s it now’ and I was having a bit of a bad time with it. But then my wife mentioned about getting a little part-time job or volunteering somewhere.

I had the time on my hands and thought I’d have a look and see what volunteering there is at North Tees and Hartlepool. I knew they had volunteers because I’d seen them on the wards so I had a look on the website and got in touch with the team.

When I came in to meet the volunteer team, they said they were looking for drivers and it just went from there. You get your checks done and then they look at your car, make sure it’s taxed and insured – it’s quite an easy process.

As I say, I was having a bad time myself. Becoming a volunteer has really helped me on my own journey as well.

What does an average ‘shift’ look like?

I come in twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays. But you can do the hours you want, whichever days you choose.

The days look like whatever they need to. You can come in and it can be mad busy or it can be very quiet.

As soon as I come in, I’ll ring up switchboard, let them know I’m here and they’ll check and see if there’s any jobs in. We take patients home, bring them in to appointments and deliver medication. We can go as far as Shotton, Peterlee and Blackhall.

What keeps you coming in?

I just love doing it – especially taking the elderly people. They might not see anyone else for a few days and they all really appreciate what we do. I love listening to their stories and I always have a daft laugh with them.

They’ll get in my car and go ‘Oh, wait until I tell my neighbours I’ve been in a Jag’ and it puts a smile on their face.

Some of them have been coming in to hospital for a couple of years. They know your first names and are always so grateful.

One gentleman from Blackhall has been coming in a few times a week to haematology for months and months now. He knows all the drivers now and we all have craic with him when we take him home. He’ll tell you jokes and stories on the way back and his outlook is brilliant – he loves having craic with the lads.

If you can help others and put smiles on the faces of people that are in a less fortunate position than yourself, it gives you a good feeling. That’s what it’s all about

I’m going to do this for as long as I can.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about becoming a volunteer driver?

To do it. I’ve already been converting people – I was talking to someone about it just last week. There’s a lot of people who ask me about it so I think I’ve got a few people teetering on the edge.

It gets you out of the house so it’s good for you. And it just gives you the best feeling when you can drop someone off and you’ve got them home safely and they’re just happy. That’s why we do it. It’s not about a pat on the back, it’s something that you want to do.