Readers’ letters: Perfect week to join volunteers

It’s Volunteers’ Week! The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on national healthcare charity, Sue Ryder, has been immense.

Not only did it have a financial impact on the charity but it also meant that our incredible volunteers were unable to support us because of the national lockdowns.

We are extremely excited that we have been able to welcome our retail volunteers back since the roadmap allowed non-essential shops to reopen.

Sue Ryder has over 5,500 dedicated retail volunteers across the country and since our shops reopened, we are welcoming 125 new volunteers every week.

Our volunteers have given over 200,000 hours to us since the reopening of shops in April and this week, we want to recognise the fantastic contribution they make to Sue Ryder.

Our hospices are only part funded by the government, with just 30% of their costs covered on average, so our volunteers play a critical part in helping the charity raise the rest of the funds needed.

They enable us to continue providing the expert and compassionate palliative, neurological and bereavement support that we are so well known for.

We’d like to appeal to any of your readers who would like to find out more about joining our team. However much time you have, we’d love to hear from you! Please visit: www.sueryder.org/volunteer for more information.

Stuart Mitchell, Volunteer and Community Manager at Sue Ryder.

Blackford fans flames

SNP’s Ian Blackford was quick to criticise Priti Patel on BBC TV for creating a ‘hostile’ situation for illegal immigrants in Scotland but the reality is that MP Mr Blackford has done much to fan the flame of Anglophobia with his rude and loud ‘bagpipe’ outbursts in Westminster.

People in England are given the impression by Mr Bagpipe that they would not be welcome in an independent Scotland and many would enjoy seeing a new event in Highland Games called “Tossing the Blackford caber” introduced in his memory.

Dennis Forbes, Grattan.