Prize-winning volunteer befriends stroke victims at Crawley hospital

St Wilfrid’s Student is Volunteer of the Year.

A sixth former from St Wilfrid’s School in Southgate has been named WorldWide Volunteering’s (WWV) Volunteer of the Year in the South East – by developing his bedside manner in the Stroke Rehabilitation Ward at Crawley Hospital.
 
Sasha Santhakumar applied to volunteer after Amy Holtz from WWV- a charity that promotes volunteering both at home and abroad - came to talk to the sixth formers at his school. “Until then, I hadn’t really considered volunteering because I didn’t really know what I could contribute,” he says. Volunteering appealed to him because of the benefit both to others and to himself and it has since aided his application to study medicine at university.
 
After nine months at the hospital, Sasha says he now appreciates the great demands on those in the medical profession.  “This experience has really made me appreciate not just medicine as a whole, but also every person that puts their heart and soul into their vocation - not just the doctors but the nurses too,” he says.  “The most important thing that I learned during my volunteering is that it really is important to help people as much as we can. It isn’t the quantity of people that we help, but how we help those people.”
 
Amy Holtz, from WWV, says, “Sasha is a shining example of a young person who’s capable and cares enough to contribute to the inner workings of his community. Starting out with some trepidation, he grew in self-confidence as he helped and chatted with the patients. In fact, he enjoyed volunteering so much that he didn’t even realise he had clocked up 60 hours!  “WorldWide Volunteering is pleased to honour Sasha with the award for 2010-11.”  Sasha will be presented his award on 19th January 2012 at 9 am at St Wilfrid’s School.

For more about Sasha click here to read about him on the 'This is Sussex' website.