1-7 June is Volunteers Week and we will be featuring some of our amazing volunteers all week on the blog and social media. First, we have been speaking to Anna Harris, who is on our Board of Trustees.
- How long have you been a volunteer at BMSTC?
I was asked to consider joining the Board of Trustees in December 2025 and was formally appointed in February 2026.
- Why did you decide to become a volunteer at BMSTC?
I hoped that some of my skills in recruitment and employment law might be useful. Plus I felt strongly that I wanted to give BMSTC something back. It is a wonderful place for people (and their families) with MS – fabulous practical support plus making lifelong friends who just “get it”. I love the level of laughter in the tea/coffee area – led, to be fair, often by me!
- What do you enjoy most about volunteering? What benefits have you experienced personally?
There is something about offering and volunteering your time that is umatched, especially if it is for a cause that you care deeply about and is personal. It’s more than paying it forward – it’s also standing up and being counted to help build and maintain a community made up of all walks of life. That’s the absolute magic in it. Money literally can’t buy the experience.
I have already made new friends for life on the Board of Trustees. You develop a shorthand relatively quickly and know that you are all wanting to head in the right direction together for the benefit, always, of BMSTC and its members. Helping to spread the workload, or offer suggestions to make something slightly easier for a fellow Trustee, always brings a smile to my face. I say “yes” far more often than “no” – long may that continue!
- Would you recommend volunteering at BMSTC to others?
I couldn’t recommend volunteering at BMSTC more highly to anyone – with or without MS. There is what I call an “undercurrent of positivity” that underscores everything that BMSTC does. Most days what you get as you walk out of the sliding doors is a huge wave of feeling fundamentally uplifted. It’s more than a good day spent.
- What would you say to anyone thinking about becoming a volunteer at BMSTC?
What are you waiting for? The kettle is on….
