It’s a record-breaking year for Dougie Mac’s volunteers

Dougie Mac is celebrating a new milestone as its amazing volunteers have given a phenomenal 100,000 hours of their time this year – a new record for the charity.

The hospice relies on around 800 dedicated volunteers who regularly give their time across all areas. At the start of 2024 Dougie Mac set itself the ambitious target to reach 100,000 volunteer hours and now, with a couple of weeks of the year left, Dougie Mac’s dedicated volunteers have already achieved the target, racking up an incredible 102,734 hours since January.  

Sarah Thomas, Head of Volunteer Services at Dougie Mac, said, “We set ourselves the ambitious target of achieving 100,000 volunteer hours this year and I’m absolutely thrilled that we’ve been able to reach this target before Christmas. Since January, on average our wonderful volunteers have given more than 8,000 hours each month, supporting 43 different hospice departments, from our shops to our dementia services; our kitchen to our events.   

“Sixty per cent of our volunteers work within our local charity shops. They are absolutely essential to the day-to-day running of our shops and play a vital role in generating more than £5million of income for Dougie Mac each year – we simply couldn’t manage without them. We also have roles available in lots of different areas and we’ve introduced some new volunteer roles this year, including within our Dementia Services, and also our Summer Scheme, which gave 16-21 year olds the opportunity to volunteer with us and gain valuable work and life experience over the summer holidays.

“Our volunteers are absolutely essential to the work that we do and to have passed the 100,000 hours mark is a real achievement. We organise lots of events throughout the year to thank them for their continued support, but on behalf of everyone at Dougie Mac I’d like to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you for every single hour our volunteers have given this year.”

Dougie Mac is always looking for new volunteers to support across all areas. If you have some time to give and would like to know more about the different roles available, visit www.dougiemac.org.uk/volunteering