School friends reunited by a shared passion to volunteer

News from our partners Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin 

Two volunteers at Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin have rekindled their friendship after 42 years. 

Janet Taylor and Julie Armstrong were close school mates growing up in Shrewsbury but lost contact over the years. It wasn’t until a charity furniture shop opened up in Shrewsbury that their friendship rekindled. 

The pair are volunteer retail assistants at the Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin charity furniture shop in Riverside Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury. The role involves helping customers, and dressing the window displays that frequently change with the different items of furniture going in and out of the shop. 

Volunteers Janet Taylor and Julie Armstrong outside the Age UK STW charity furniture shop in Shrewsbury.

Janet said:

“It was so nice to meet up with Julie again after all these years. We both enjoy volunteering because we feel we are doing something useful and helping older people. We’re part of a great team – we may only help out in the shop a few hours a week but it’s really enjoyable and rewarding.” 

Heather Osborne, Chief Executive of Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin, said:

“We run three charity furniture shops in Shropshire – Wellington, Shrewsbury and Oswestry. They generate much needed unrestricted funds for our organisation, enabling us to deliver services to local older people and without volunteers we simply wouldn’t be able to operate the shops so successfully. Our volunteers play a valuable role in helping us to support local older people.” 

Anyone willing to donate a couple of hours of their time once a week in the charity furniture shops is urged to get in touch with the volunteer recruitment team on 01743 588570 or visit www.ageukshropshireandtelford.org.uk.

Further information 

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin is a local charity which has been working tirelessly for over 67 years to make life better for older people across the whole of Shropshire. 

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin offers a range of services for older people in the county. These include: Information and Advice, Day Centres, dementia support, the Help at Home Service, volunteer befriending visitors, Home from Hospital services, Lunch Clubs, Living Well activities, Benefits Advice, and Advocacy on behalf of older people. 

Last year over 100,000 volunteer hours were given to support older people, ranging from helping people to fill in benefits forms, supporting people in our 40 Day Centres, visiting isolated older people at home, to acting as receptionists in our Shrewsbury office.

As part of our ‘No one should have No one’ campaign, we are raising money and recruiting volunteers to increase services such as befriending and social activities that reduce isolation and loneliness among  older people in Shropshire.

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin is based in Shrewsbury and in Telford.  The Shrewsbury office is open from 10am – 4pm Monday to Friday, 01743 233123.  Our office at Meeting Point House in Telford is open every morning, 01952 216018.  Further information about our local services is available on our website www.ageukshropshireandtelford.org.uk