News story
29 May 2026
Volunteering doesn’t only help others – it helps you too. That’s the message being shared by volunteers for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) ahead of Volunteers’ Week (June 1 to 7).
“What is surprising is how it lifts you. You think you’re doing it for others, but, my lord, it helps you so much as well.” So says Cambridge’s Sally Laight, who started volunteering with ACT following cancer treatment – a more than four-year journey which involved multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and emergency care for septic shock.
Having been treated at both Addenbrooke’s and by London specialists, Sally says: “Don’t let anybody tell me anything bad about the NHS: they’ve saved my life 20 times over. And they really care. They treat the body; they treat the soul – they treat the person. With the personal experience I’ve had, how could I not want to give something back?”
The official hospital charity for Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie, ACT funds cutting-edge equipment, specialist staff, extra comforts and pioneering research that helps change and save lives, above and beyond what the NHS can provide.
In the course of her treatment for colon cancer, which metastasised to her liver and lungs, Sally experienced firsthand the difference ACT’s funding makes having benefitted from two projects funded by the charity; nature-themed vinyl wraps on the MRI scanner (“which sounds like a small thing, but you look up at these blossoms and just breathe”) to the robotic surgeon (which removed her lung tumour via keyhole incisions, speeding her recovery time and meaning she was home within three days).
Signing up last April and swiftly becoming one of ACT’s most prolific volunteers in 2025, clocking up 50 hours, Sally speaks to people waiting in Oncology, gives talks to community groups and supports fundraisers taking part in events such as the Cambridge Half Marathon.
“What is surprising is how it lifts you. You think you’re doing it for others, but, my lord, it helps you so much as well.”
Just 18 months ago, the trust had seven volunteers; today, Sally is among a fast-growing team of 31. With opportunities available to anyone over the age of 18, spanning fundraising and awareness-raising to hands-on support at events and hospital hubs, Volunteer Programme Lead, Alex Innes, says: “In many ways, our volunteers help celebrate why Addenbrooke’s is such an important and valued hospital. They recognise the impact hospital staff have on our lives and those of our loved ones, and they want to show their support in a tangible way.”
For Cambridge’s Bansri Ramaiya, who fits volunteering around a job in pharma and being a mum to her teenage son, it’s a chance to continue her mum Usha’s legacy: “She always believed that we may not be able to solve the world’s problems, but we can help one person.” As well as taking on fundraising challenges, including clocking up a mile every day in May for ACT’s Walk to Remember initiative, Bansri participates in community outreach.
Gamlingay student Vicky Boyne, who’s about to graduate in Psychology, was connected with ACT by her careers adviser at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Magdalena Mucha. Volunteering in the charity’s hospital hubs, Vicky says: “Part of it was to build up my CV – I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t – but I also wanted to do something that made a difference; to be that friendly face for people and to see them smile.”
Volunteering has countless benefits for students, adds Magdalena, who’s been an Employability & Careers Adviser at ARU since 2022. “It offers something that goes beyond career development alone – it allows students to contribute their time and energy towards causes, communities and individuals in ways that can have a very real impact,” she explains.
“That experience of being able to make a meaningful contribution and see the difference your presence can make is often deeply valuable in itself,” continues Magdalena, “particularly at a stage in life where many students are still shaping their sense of identity, purpose, and direction.”
Also integral to ACT’s work are its corporate partners – including Cheffins and Cambridge Commodities – whose employees join the regular volunteers to help deliver events such as Daffodil Day, which saw 3,500 bunches of flowers handed out to staff at Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie Hospitals this spring as a thank you for their work.
After seeing a call-out for Daffodil Day helpers, ARK Fire Protection volunteered to distribute flowers to NHS colleagues working in 12 offsite locations across the surrounding counties.
Managing Director, Howard Hudson, says: “Being handed something physical, something cheerful, by people who took time out of their working day to be there; that landed differently. A few of them asked who we were and what we did. That conversation, that moment of genuine human connection, is the kind of thing you we are losing and it’s important to keep those moments happening.”
Adds Howard: “Acts of Random Kindness has been part of how ARK operates since the beginning; the idea that a business should leave the places it works in better than it found them. Partnering with ACT felt like a natural extension of something we were already doing.”
With ACT supporting both the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital and Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, as well as the ongoing work of Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie, the charity is also aiming to establish fundraising committees across Bedfordshire, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Peterborough and Suffolk.
Groups of friends, families, peers and networks who come together to organise their own fundraising activities, these range from community quiz nights, school summer fetes and monthly lunch clubs to participation in ACT‑led initiatives like Walk to Remember.
“We provide support throughout, enabling groups to give their time in ways that work for them,” says ACT’s Alex. “Currently, we have a well‑established group in Peterborough dedicated to raising funds for the new Children’s Hospital, and a new group forming in Hertfordshire. We are keen to build and grow this network over time.”
A UK-wide campaign held every June since 1984, Volunteers’ Week celebrates people who give their time freely to make a community, a county and the country a better place. To mark this year’s event, Cambridge’s 106-year-old bakery, Fitzbillies, is giving all ACT’s volunteers a free Chelsea bun.
Say Fitzbillies owners Alison Wright and Tim Hayward, who credits Addenbrooke’s with saving his own life during Covid: “It’s a little thank you. We are so lucky to have an amazing, world-class hospital like Addenbrooke’s in our area – and ACT and its volunteers play an essential role in funding things that make it even better.”
Find out more about volunteering with Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust here.
Click here to read Sally’s story.
Click here to read Vicky’s story.
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