Volunteers at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) are taking to a message board in a bid to raise awareness of their role and boost numbers.

The board will feature several of the existing 580 volunteers at QEHB with the simple message ‘Ask us what we do’ attached to it.

It will form part of a display inside the main entrance at QEHB during national Volunteers’ Week, which runs from June 1 to 7.

The display will operate between 10:00 – 16:00 on three selected days - June 4, 6 and 7 - and will feature a pair of giant hands on an information stand.

Visitors will be encouraged to make a donation to the QEHB Volunteers’ Fund in return for putting their names on stickers attached to the hands. The Fund supports volunteers who make a vital contribution by giving their time for free across the hospital trust.

Voluntary Services Manager Pat Wilson said: “The idea is that we engage with the public but also try to use this event as a recruitment drive.

“Several of our volunteers will be present over the course of the three days. As well as the giant hands, there will also be a board which will feature a group of volunteers with the message ‘ask us what we do’. One of the voluntary services team will be there as well.”

Volunteer roles at QEHB range from meeting and greeting visitors to helping on wards. But the atrium display will also advertise a planned new role of dining companion, who will sit with patients requiring assistance during mealtimes.

As part of Volunteers’ Week, the hospital trust will also host a Volunteer Awards ceremony at the Clarendon Suite, Hagley Road, Edgbaston, on Wednesday 5 June, from 15:30.

NB: Volunteers’ Week is an annual campaign which celebrates the contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK.

Every year at least 20 million people volunteer across the UK, donating more than 100 million hours to their communities every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth more than £40 billion to the economy.

Volunteer case study

Volunteer Abdul Habib is happy to be giving something back to the NHS after years spent as a patient with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB).

Abdul was born with a brittle bones condition known as Osteogenesis imperfecta Type 3, but has decided that being a wheelchair user is no barrier to helping others.

In the run-up to national Volunteers’ Week, Abdul is supporting a call for more people to give their time for free to the hospital trust, which runs QEHB.

The 42-year-old, who lives in Moseley, began volunteering for the Trust in September 2012, spending four hours every Wednesday and three hours on Thursdays, helping in the outpatients department.

Abdul, who is described as an “inspiration” by the hospital’s volunteer services staff, said: “I wanted to pay the NHS back for all the hard work that has been done for me over the years. I am contributing to the NHS because I have been using their services as a patient and know what it’s like to go through it.

“I am also getting experience which is very useful.”

Abdul spent 16 years working in customer service for British Gas, but has been without a job since his office closed down in 2007.

He added: “I believe that because I am a wheelchair user I can put other people at ease, especially if they are in a wheelchair too. I check patients in, talk to them if they need help, and direct them to where they want to go.

“And to put them at their ease, I go towards them and ask them a question which clearly identifies that I am here to help them. That breaks the barrier.”

Abdul said of his volunteering: “I enjoy it and meet different patients. My previous job was desk-bound so didn’t meet customers face to face, so this is completely different.”

And he said he was also determined to prove that you can succeed with determination and hard work. “Nothing is easy but you have got to be positive and take each day as it comes.”