Episode 15

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Published on:

15th Oct 2024

Creating community

If you received a diagnosis of a rare illness, you might find yourself with many questions and the desire to speak to someone about what to expect. This was the case for Barbara Fountain, who after finding limited support for young people with tongue cancer, established a community of her own. This community has grown in to the global charity Young Tongues. In this episode we'll hear from Barbara and volunteer Nat about how being involved in Young Tongues makes a difference; supporting those with tongue cancer in sometimes unexpected ways.

To find out more about Young Tongues visit https://www.youngtonguesglobal.com/

To get in touch with the Volunteering Discovery team contact jules.alderson@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is produced by Hospital Radio Norwich for NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System.

Transcript
Sarah:

Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

Sarah:

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of volunteering in health

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and social care in Norfolk and Waveney.

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Volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health and social

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care in a huge variety of ways.

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In our hospitals, our communities and even from the comfort of their own homes.

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In each podcast, we'll be hearing from those who give their

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time supporting others and the people who work alongside them.

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I'm your host, Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

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Tongue cancer is a rare form of head and neck cancer, and one that many

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listeners may not have heard of.

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Because so few people, and especially young people, are diagnosed with

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tongue cancer, It can make it difficult for a tongue cancer patient to find

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support or talk to someone who can understand what they're going through.

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In today's episode, we'll be talking to members of the team at Young Tongues.

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A global charity set up in Norfolk by Barbara Fountain.

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We opened our conversation by asking Barbara to introduce us

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to Young Tongues and the support they and their volunteers provide.

Barbara:

Hi, my name is Barbara Fountain and I am the founder and CEO of the

Barbara:

Young Tongues, a peer to peer support group for young tongue cancer patients.

Barbara:

So my role as the founder was basically setting the whole thing up and then

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finding people who were willing to come this crazy rollercoaster

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ride with me and support me in it.

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The project started off as a social media project, a Facebook group,

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a WhatsApp group where we met with other tongue cancer patients.

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Me being formerly one as well and support to each other as the community grew.

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And I realized there was a real need for specialist support.

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We registered a charity with that.

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I had to go and find trustees.

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I'm having to find volunteers.

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I'm having to find businesses that are willing to give me their expertise

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free of charge, if possible, and start bringing in income to the charity.

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So that's my core role at the moment is to make sure that all our legal functions

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are covered as a registered charity.

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That we are achieving the objectives that we've set out with the charity

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commission and that we have enough income to exist for a long future ahead.

Barbara:

We have a global community of young tongue cancer patients and when I say young, in

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our case, it's anyone between 18 and 64 who has been diagnosed with tongue cancer.

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Because we are a relative rare patient group, we offer this

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service to anyone worldwide who's got access to the internet.

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We have the peer to peer support group where every day we see anything between

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six and fifteen questions being shared by the community and answered by the

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community, which is really important.

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So giving a real patient view, we have some guidelines in place to make sure

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no one's giving medical advice, but more sharing their own experiences, which is

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really helpful also for mental health.

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Support perspective, and then we create social media content.

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We base that largely on the discussions that are happening within the group.

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So that makes us unique in that sort of sense that we are not just quoting

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from trusted sources in terms of definitions and explainers, but also

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share real life experience, which can be helpful to both patients, their

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carers and the medical profession.

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As a support group, we started in 2001, and then it took a couple

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of years of seeing what happened.

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And I guess I was surprised myself by numbers and how quickly we grew.

Barbara:

This was always set up for quite selfish reasons because I wanted to support

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myself and I couldn't find it anywhere.

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It was only once the numbers exponentially went up that I

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realized that this very rare cancer actually really isn't that rare.

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We then registered as a charity in October, 2023.

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So we're still within our first year of it.

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Official existence, according to the Charity Commission, anyhow.

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When we first started, it was literally me reaching out to two people on

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Instagram in America that I found.

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And we both, we all three of us got diagnosed around the same time.

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So we were in touch with each other.

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Those two people had a bit more of an Instagram following, were

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connected with more, and one day during the pandemic, I said, Hey, why

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don't we just all meet up on Zoom?

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So the first meetup we had.

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There were 12 of us and it was exhilarating.

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There was so much chatter going on.

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Everyone was showing their scars.

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Everyone was going, Oh, does this happen to you as well?

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And it was just so lovely and enriching.

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And I just looked at it and I thought this needs to happen more regularly.

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So we set up the group and then we just put it out there.

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We didn't do any advertising.

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We just started creating content.

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We very quickly had 50 people, then 100, 50, 200.

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And now, two years after, we have supported more than 700 patients,

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and we're growing each week.

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I would say on average, we get about five to six new patients

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join the community each week.

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And the more of a profile we build, the more that increases.

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So we're suddenly really coming to realize, and we're having

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to change the way we do things.

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Thanks We've really come to realize that there's a much bigger community of people

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out there who are desperate to connect with other people who've been through

Barbara:

a similar experience or who are newly diagnosed and are looking for a steer on

Barbara:

what might happen to them in the future.

Barbara:

We do have to monitor all the posts that go up.

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Thankfully, we have a little army of volunteers that will flag

Barbara:

things to me or to other people.

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Some of the other trustees, if something looks a bit untoward, they're

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summarized by, we're really happy for you to share your experience, but not

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to make any medical recommendations.

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And everyone's actually been really good with that.

Barbara:

If someone's fallen foul of it, it's usually been very

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early on in their experience.

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Because I think one of the things that you learn really quickly as becoming part of

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the community is even though we've been diagnosed with the exact same disease.

Barbara:

Each and every one of the experience is so unique and so different, and not everyone

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is going to have the same side effects.

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Not one person is going to get all the side effects.

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And people will be impacted by side effects in degrees of severity.

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And the same thing goes for the treatment because we are a global community.

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There is a degree of difference actually, even within the UK, there's

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a degree of difference depending which trust you're with in what

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kind of treatment you will receive.

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So we always try to encourage to share your experience, but always

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with the little asterisks at the end, check with your healthcare

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team before taking any action.

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Another value that we have is be kind.

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So we are a space that is open to everyone, no matter of race, religion,

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gender, sexual orientation, gender.

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And we do try and encourage people to stay away from overly religious

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posts or overly political posts.

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Again, just to accommodate the huge variety in different cultures,

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which you have to respect.

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And we do have a big degree of different cultures.

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We have people in the U.

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S.

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There's a variation of cultures within the U.

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S.

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Then we have people from the Middle East.

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We have.

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People from Australia and Europe.

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So we do need to make sure we're accommodate for that.

Barbara:

And my favorite rule is no top trumps, which is always a bit of a mouthful.

Barbara:

When I have to explain to the Americans, cause they always think it's to do

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with the president, but basically no top trumps means we don't try

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and outscore each other in terms of the pain that we've been through or

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the treatment we've been through.

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But also the opposite, we don't try and downplay what we've been through.

Barbara:

For example, saying, oh, I only have surgery, so it's not that bad.

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Actually, you heard the words, you have cancer, no matter what your

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life has been impacted by that.

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And so we do that to try and cultivate the culture that we have.

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The charity is much more than a local support network, having

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people access and offer support from many different countries.

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We wanted to know what roles do volunteers play at Young Tongues?

Barbara:

They are hugely important to the entire operation because

Barbara:

without volunteers we can't exist.

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Like any new charity, but also established charity, it is incredibly difficult

Barbara:

to obtain funding and to pay staff.

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Also, when you start off, you don't have those type of resources.

Barbara:

I think we are slightly unique in the sense that all the people we

Barbara:

serve automatically become volunteers because it is a peer to peer support.

Barbara:

So I feel that we are actually doing a double service.

Barbara:

We are creating a service where you can provide, where you can

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receive help from fellow patients whilst you're on the thick of it.

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But it also empowers you to provide help.

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And I feel that has a really positive impact on a patient,

Barbara:

especially when things can be really desperate and horrendous situations.

Barbara:

The fact that you're still able to help others gives you

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meaning in a really dark place.

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And so in that sense, everyone who's involved is a volunteer

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for some description, but then it comes to the more functional roles.

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For example, we have a board of trustees.

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All of our trustees are volunteers.

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Those trustees all have different roles within it.

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We have someone who looks after all the finances.

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We have myself that is more sort of the operational side of the charity.

Barbara:

And then we have clinicians that have joined us to help us to fact check all our

Barbara:

information and also network and campaign.

Barbara:

Then we spread out.

Barbara:

One thing I have learned over the last year is that I can't do it all by myself.

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I had to reach out into the community.

Barbara:

It turns out that when people are really passionate about a course,

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they don't mind giving up their own times to help them see that progress.

Barbara:

So one of our key values is that everything we do for the community,

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by the community, So when it comes to creating content, to creating information

Barbara:

for the website, to hosting events, to mentoring other patients, you have had

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to gone through the experience yourself.

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We don't really bring in medical professionals for those roles

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because we feel that we're not here to give medical advice.

Barbara:

We are here for a holistic experience and To help people get through something

Barbara:

that is incredibly difficult, horrendous at times when it comes to radiation

Barbara:

and chemo, also that will have a profound impact on their lives forever,

Barbara:

not managing side effects and so on.

Barbara:

So we do really want to recruit people from within our community.

Barbara:

We also see a lot of individuals struggling to either keep or obtain

Barbara:

new employment because of, at times, severe speech impediments.

Barbara:

We feel that if we can give voluntary opportunities, it keeps them

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engaged, it gives them a better life.

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Routine and also builds confidence, which hopefully will help them obtain

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employment when they are ready to go back.

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And again, I feel like it's really important that actually our volunteers

Barbara:

get something out of volunteering and when you have been impacted by

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something in a, the chance to be able to share your experience actually gives

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you something that nothing else can.

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No money, no amount of gifts, no amount of thank you can really feel what you're

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feeling when you're supporting a fellow patient, especially if you know how lonely

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an experience it might have been for you.

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So I think that's our number one pull is that people have been through this

Barbara:

horrendous experience and want to create something positive at the end of it.

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In terms of training.

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Yes, not everyone is as digitally literate, so we will have workshops on

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to help them learn about things like Canva, about social media, scheduling

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tools, email, digital mailers, and so on.

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We try to make everything accessible.

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Doesn't feel comfortable, doesn't have that type of skillset.

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We do try and find them an alternative way that they can contribute.

Barbara:

We also ask our community lot to provide content such as creating videos.

Barbara:

Again, that can be quite challenging for someone with a speech impediment.

Barbara:

But I always encourage everyone to give it a go.

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We don't have to publish it, but we can work on it and then see the progress

Barbara:

as we go through, through the month.

Barbara:

So yeah, the other sort of training that we do is we make sure that Anyone

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who's involved with the Young Tongues understands what our values are.

Barbara:

So we always have an induction, a virtual meetup followed by paperwork, just cause

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I know not everyone reads the paperwork.

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It's really important to me that we convey what our values are,

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what our objectives are, and why we're doing the work we're doing.

Barbara:

Now there are some services elements or.

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Items that we need to create where you do have to be an expert in your field.

Barbara:

So for example, we are looking for an accountant.

Barbara:

Now I would prefer to have an accountant who is from within our community, but

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sometimes that's not possible and other skillsets as well, where we're looking for

Barbara:

a degree of expertise, quite often we end up having to pay for that type of service,

Barbara:

but where we can, we try to obtain pro bono services from organizations.

Barbara:

And I class them as much as a volunteer as anyone from within our community.

Sarah:

To give us an idea of what it's like to go on the journey from

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community member to volunteer with Young Tongues, Barbara introduced us to Nat,

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who we spoke to over Microsoft Teams.

Nat:

My name is Nat Ross and I am the secretary to the board of

Nat:

trustees at the Young Tongues.

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And what does that mean?

Nat:

I do a lot of the kind of admin side of things, minute in the meetings.

Nat:

Organizing the next meeting, sending out the agendas, making sure that

Nat:

we've got everything that we need for the next meetings and that everything

Nat:

is above board so that the meeting minutes are in the right place for

Nat:

auditing and those kind of things.

Nat:

Young Tongues is very good to my heart.

Nat:

So I was.

Nat:

Uh, diagnosed with tongue cancer myself last year in eight.

Nat:

So I found Charity and kind of used it from a firsthand perspective as

Nat:

a patient, as a peer to peer support group, found it really helpful.

Nat:

And then when I saw the role go up, I thought, Oh, that's me

Nat:

because I already do that as a job in my sort of day to day role.

Nat:

Because I'm, I love the charity anyway, so it just made sense that why don't I?

Nat:

I have volunteered in the past, a while, a long time ago, really,

Nat:

when I was at uni and those kind of things, doing different things.

Nat:

I guess I hadn't thought about it more recently because life is quite hectic.

Nat:

I've got a small child and I've got work and yeah, trying to fit it in.

Nat:

But yeah, it just didn't cross my mind until I saw that role and

Nat:

just thought, Oh, that's perfect.

Nat:

I can do that.

Nat:

And it's just something that I feel so passionately about.

Nat:

That I just felt I had to apply really.

Nat:

And I was like, Oh yeah, me, Barbara was really great and talked me through

Nat:

everything and the role when they put out the advertise, the advertisement for

Nat:

the role was really thorough as well.

Nat:

So I knew what to expect from that.

Nat:

And also knew that what was expected is what I do in my day to day job.

Nat:

So I do already do it.

Nat:

So that was really good.

Nat:

I guess the one thing maybe that I was nervous about was meeting

Nat:

everyone and that kind of thing.

Nat:

Although I had, it's ironic because although I had probably met everyone

Nat:

because we're all in the peer to peer support group, virtually we have

Nat:

met or spoken at least on the group.

Nat:

I guess it's a different way of meeting when you're volunteering

Nat:

together, working together.

Sarah:

Being able to give your time and skills virtually is a fairly new

Sarah:

phenomenon to volunteering, with Covid.

Sarah:

We asked Nat to tell us more about the activities she does as a volunteer.

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And how her personal skills and experiences affect what she does.

Nat:

So it's more as and when, so it's normally every couple of months when

Nat:

there's a board of trustees meeting.

Nat:

So when there's one of those, that when my role comes into play, the

Nat:

kind of beauty of it is that it's.

Nat:

Can be flexible, which is great as someone who's a mom and also works.

Nat:

Yeah.

Nat:

Need flexibility, but sometimes if I can't attend the meeting, Barbara

Nat:

will make sure that it's recorded.

Nat:

And again, this comes in with the whole AI thing as well.

Nat:

If it's recorded, then that, that helps with the minuting of the meetings as well.

Nat:

But it means I can then minute the meetings at a later time, then I will

Nat:

go ahead and write out the minutes.

Nat:

I then send them off to the board of trustees for them

Nat:

to okay, as well as Barbara.

Nat:

I then go about coordinating the next meeting.

Nat:

That would be things like making sure that I know what the agenda is.

Nat:

So I normally have a meeting with Barbara and we'll just go over what

Nat:

we're going to cover in the next meeting.

Nat:

I'll put together the agenda and then I normally do a little poll for the

Nat:

trustees to find out when they're all next available for the meeting,

Nat:

I coordinate them all together, send out everything for the next meeting.

Nat:

From my personal sort of experience in my own diagnosis, I've got a quite a good

Nat:

understanding of what Young Tongues offers and how important it is because I use

Nat:

it myself and continue to use it myself.

Nat:

So I know how vital the charity is, it was a huge support to

Nat:

me when I was first diagnosed.

Nat:

It continues to be a support to me now.

Nat:

I think having that understanding, particularly when you're going, you're

Nat:

minuting meetings, things like that.

Nat:

I know some of the terminology and I'm not going to say I know all of it, but I

Nat:

do know some of it and that really helps.

Nat:

Then I guess from my other roles in my day to day, my job role and how that helps.

Nat:

So it's given me, I already had kind of experience in minuting, kind of.

Nat:

Big meetings.

Nat:

So I work in higher education as an administrator.

Nat:

So the jobs translate very well into each other.

Nat:

So my job role day to day is managing big meetings, organizing people, make sure

Nat:

that they carry out any action points that come from meetings, coordinating

Nat:

next meetings and those kinds of things.

Nat:

So I think those skills that I already have translated over well, I will

Nat:

continue to translate over well.

Nat:

Yeah.

Nat:

Into my role with Young Tongues, hopefully, I think probably, I think what

Nat:

is going to be the most difficult part of it, I'm relatively new to the role, but

Nat:

I think what will be the most difficult part is because it's a global charity.

Nat:

So our trustees are from all over the world, I think probably coordinating

Nat:

the meetings is what's going to be getting them booked in a time that

Nat:

works for everyone is probably what's going to be most challenging because

Nat:

everyone's on different time zones.

Nat:

That's definitely going to.

Nat:

prove interesting, I think.

Nat:

And that's very different to the role I work in at the moment, my day to

Nat:

day job, because everyone's in the UK.

Nat:

So I don't really have to worry about that.

Nat:

That will be an interesting new challenge.

Nat:

I mean, when I was just talking to Barbara this morning, actually, and we were saying

Nat:

that one of the trustees is in Australia.

Nat:

So I was trying to get my head around it.

Nat:

And she was like, so they're a day in front.

Nat:

And then I got confused.

Nat:

And I was like, so they're Saturdays are Friday.

Nat:

And then I was just getting so confused.

Nat:

In the end, I think I got it.

Nat:

I was like, no, okay, they're a day ahead.

Sarah:

With Nat inspired to volunteer with Young Tongues, thanks to her

Sarah:

own positive experience with the organisation, we asked her how she

Sarah:

felt the charity makes a difference.

Nat:

There are definitely moments where I've lent on the community

Nat:

as a support group, definitely.

Nat:

After my diagnosis and when I was in hospital recovering from my

Nat:

surgery, I was really on the group every day asking different questions

Nat:

and sometimes really silly stuff.

Nat:

What's the best pillow to buy after the surgery?

Nat:

And those kind of things.

Nat:

It's the best toothbrush.

Nat:

But the beauty of it is because it's a global group, there's always someone,

Nat:

no matter what hour of day it is and when you're in hospital, you're not

Nat:

always sleeping because it's loud.

Nat:

And so I could just take to the group at whatever hour and someone's generally

Nat:

awake and is going to reply to you.

Nat:

Which is lovely.

Nat:

It's so lovely.

Nat:

It's such a friendly community.

Nat:

Everyone is so supportive.

Nat:

Even though I've never met anyone in person as yet from Young Tongue.

Nat:

Hopefully will in the future, but at the moment I haven't.

Nat:

But yeah, I feel like I know people already, even though it's only virtually.

Nat:

Which is so lovely.

Nat:

One of the things that I never thought about before I went in for my surgery

Nat:

was that brushing my teeth was probably going to be quite a hard thing to do.

Nat:

I'll talk to you a little bit just about the surgery that I had and what

Nat:

most tongue cancer patients generally do is some kind of glossectomy.

Nat:

Glossectomy is when they remove part or all of your tongue and generally

Nat:

rebuild it with something else sometimes.

Nat:

So for me, I had a partial glossoctomy with a flap reconstruction.

Nat:

So what that means is they removed about a third of my tail and they

Nat:

rebuilt it with my forearm skin and blood vessels and arteries.

Nat:

So that it's live living tissue within my mouth.

Nat:

Obviously that was huge surgery.

Nat:

So I was in hospital for a week, in ICU for several days as well.

Nat:

Before I went in, I took to the group and kind of said, is there

Nat:

anything that I should take with me that I haven't thought of?

Nat:

And the only things that I'd really thought of were the things that

Nat:

had been put on the list from the hospital, which is a general

Nat:

list that everyone gets given.

Nat:

Pyjamas, washta, all of that.

Nat:

But actually what everyone suggested was so helpful.

Nat:

So.

Nat:

One of the things was take a baby toothbrush because everything is

Nat:

going to be so swollen in your mouth.

Nat:

You're not going to get a normal toothbrush or an electric toothbrush in.

Nat:

And I never ever would have thought that I would have been packing my electric

Nat:

toothbrush not really thinking about it because you're just so Until you've

Nat:

experienced it, I don't think you'd ever know what you're going to, what to expect.

Nat:

So that was so helpful.

Nat:

Even now, I still have my baby toothbrush and sometimes take it with me if

Nat:

I'm going to an appointment at the hospital to brush my teeth beforehand.

Nat:

So it's actually a really helpful thing.

Nat:

And for the pillows, so they suggested, because I had a left neck dissection,

Nat:

so that's where they removed the lymph nodes from the left side of my neck.

Nat:

And quite often that comes hand in hand with, if you have a glossectomy,

Nat:

they'll normally Take some lymph nodes as well, just to be on the safe side.

Nat:

If someone else suggested a kind of a U shaped pillow, a bit like

Nat:

a pregnancy pillow, because it can help you prop up because you get so

Nat:

swollen around your neck and your head.

Nat:

And I had never given that a thought, really, to take a different kind of

Nat:

pillow, but it was so helpful to be able to prop myself up in a way that I wouldn't

Nat:

have been able to with a normal pillow.

Nat:

There are so many different questions.

Nat:

I know for me, some of the questions I've asked was, when I was first diagnosed,

Nat:

one of my questions was, how did everyone cope if they had young children?

Nat:

After the surgery, that was a big fear for me, was how was I going

Nat:

to be able to look after my child?

Nat:

After this surgery, I didn't know what I would look like or what my

Nat:

body would feel like after this.

Nat:

That was really helpful to be able to talk to other parents that had

Nat:

first hand experience of this is what you might experience, this is

Nat:

what helped me, and all of that.

Nat:

And actually, since then as well, there have been other people that have come

Nat:

into the group who are, again, young parents that have just been diagnosed.

Nat:

And I've then been able to help and say, this is what worked for me, this

Nat:

is something you might want to look out

Sarah:

for.

Sarah:

If you have volunteered yourself or if you've listened to a previous episode

Sarah:

of Volunteering Discovery, You'll know that many volunteers find benefits

Sarah:

from getting involved in local causes.

Sarah:

Barbara and Nat have both found positives from their involvement with Young Tongues.

Barbara:

So I think the most profound story is of a lady who was really active

Barbara:

within our community, always responding to people, always offering an ear.

Barbara:

Connecting with people one to one, just a really smiley, happy person, yet was

Barbara:

willing to be totally vulnerable and share the devastating situation she found

Barbara:

herself in, which meant she had incurable.

Barbara:

Tom Kansay had spread to other parts of her body.

Barbara:

We knew that her life was limited.

Barbara:

I think it was one of those moments, pinch me moments, where

Barbara:

I was, I got confirmation of why, What I was doing was so important.

Barbara:

I received a personal message from this lady whilst she was in hospice, I

Barbara:

think, within days before she passed.

Barbara:

And she just expressed the gratitude of being able to volunteer whilst being

Barbara:

this pretty, dark, sad, scary situation.

Barbara:

She said that it empowered her and it gave her life and light in her darkest days.

Barbara:

And I think that's the true power of volunteering.

Barbara:

It's not about just spending your time in a way.

Barbara:

It's about giving back to the community, doing something with your time that adds

Barbara:

value to other people's lives, which then in return gives something back to you.

Barbara:

So when I read that was, it's still quite hard for me and I still have that message.

Barbara:

I've printed it out because I just wanted to remember that

Barbara:

when things get tough for me.

Barbara:

That I go back to that and really remind myself that this isn't just a

Barbara:

lifeline for people who need help, but also a lifeline for people to provide

Barbara:

help to given purpose when their health might mean that there's only very

Barbara:

limited amount of things they can do.

Barbara:

It's your self worth because I think, and I experienced that whilst I was

Barbara:

ill as well, I just felt so useless.

Barbara:

And as a person that used to be always so productive to suddenly

Barbara:

not be able to do anything, you feel like a spare part, you don't

Barbara:

really know what to do with yourself.

Barbara:

And you also, you suddenly feel like you have no worth.

Barbara:

And I think there was another reason why, whilst I was going

Barbara:

through the cancer, it impacted me on a mental health perspective.

Barbara:

Cause we, basically I was starting to get better and then we had COVID hit.

Barbara:

Unfortunately, every time I was applying for help, I was being turned down and it

Barbara:

got to a point where I stopped applying for help because I couldn't handle being

Barbara:

turned down because it made me feel as if I am now an individual or a human

Barbara:

that has lost its worth to society.

Barbara:

I almost felt, I got very bitter about it and I was very like, the government was

Barbara:

really happy to support me when I was an entrepreneur and I had my own business and

Barbara:

they were basically throwing money at me.

Barbara:

But now, because I have this word cancer attached to me, I felt useless.

Barbara:

And I feel like for me personally, and I guess I'm a volunteer in all

Barbara:

of this, for me personally, the thing that I've gotten from creating this

Barbara:

organization, creating this project.

Barbara:

Is that I've been able to manufacture my own self worth again, when I was

Barbara:

repeatedly told no, I had to create something that would allow me to feel

Barbara:

like I was contributing to society, even if I wasn't able to work, especially

Barbara:

because I wasn't able to work.

Barbara:

And, and also I was really scared to go back to work because when you

Barbara:

go back to work, you're committing yourself and then you lose your

Barbara:

benefits and you lose your safety net.

Barbara:

So the fact that I was able to create this project and do that with

Barbara:

the limited amount of energy that I had to slowly build up has most

Barbara:

definitely helped me go back to work.

Barbara:

And in an ironic way, it's become my work, it's become my life.

Barbara:

I do think that's an also another aspect of volunteering that gets forgotten.

Barbara:

It can really help build confidence and help you find path back to

Barbara:

maybe a version of what you used to be and really build self worth.

Nat:

It is lovely in a way, that's a weird way of saying it I think because

Nat:

it certainly wasn't a lovely experience but it is relieving and also lovely

Nat:

that I am now able to help other people but I know a year ago I was in that

Nat:

same position and so part of me when I reply to people like that I said Gosh,

Nat:

I remember how that felt and I remember how scary it was and things like that.

Nat:

But also I try and then remind them and let them know that

Nat:

there's light after this.

Nat:

There's life after cancer.

Nat:

Some ways that's really lovely because you think it's hard now.

Nat:

You won't get through this because I didn't.

Nat:

And thanks to the support that I got from Young Tongues as well.

Nat:

It's lovely, but in this kind of weird way where it shouldn't.

Nat:

It's so funny, when I was diagnosed with cancer I told myself I'm going to take

Nat:

things easy and, but I don't think I've ever really been that kind of person.

Nat:

Even though you have cancer and then you tell yourself these things, you

Nat:

are still you at the end of the day.

Nat:

And I do enjoy being busy and it was funny that I thought that I'm loving

Nat:

being back to busy life and being able to give back a bit during that as well.

Sarah:

To bring our conversations with Barbara and Nat to a close, we asked

Sarah:

them both to share their advice for someone thinking about volunteering.

Barbara:

I would really think about, hard about what gives you

Barbara:

joy and what do you enjoy doing.

Barbara:

Because showing up somewhere and volunteering and then not enjoying it.

Barbara:

And also think about what your interests are, where your skill, where

Barbara:

you already have some skill levels, so you're not starting from scratch,

Barbara:

because I do feel charities are really reliant on people giving up their time.

Barbara:

But it's not just their time, it's also their skillset.

Barbara:

So if you already have something that can be incredibly valuable for a charity,

Barbara:

and there's a quick pro quo and they can offer you other opportunities to learn

Barbara:

something new and make sure that you're.

Barbara:

Express your interests and you let them know what it is that you would

Barbara:

like to pursue and improve and work on.

Barbara:

I'm pretty sure any charity would be more than happy to invest in

Barbara:

you as an individual to also help you whilst you're helping them.

Nat:

I would say go ahead with it.

Nat:

If you feel like it's something that you'd like to do it, I don't

Nat:

think you'll ever regret it.

Nat:

No matter who you were to volunteer for, if it's Young Tongues or another charity.

Nat:

The feeling that you'll get from it, knowing that you're making

Nat:

some difference and some change.

Nat:

It's just so worth it how you might be helping someone else, even if it's

Nat:

indirectly, because I think my role is probably quite an indirect way of helping

Nat:

and very much a behind the scenes kind of person, but that's an important part for

Nat:

the charity to be able to run and part of the auditing process and all of that.

Nat:

So There are so many different roles that you could do with volunteering.

Nat:

It doesn't have to be the standard ones that you think of.

Nat:

I think before I probably started volunteering in this role, I probably

Nat:

thought volunteering was more like the days that you get free work where you

Nat:

can go somewhere and do volunteering and that sort of thing, but there's so

Nat:

many different aspects of volunteering.

Nat:

That, that you can actually, you could use your day to day skills in

Nat:

your job to help a charity, or you could do something totally different

Nat:

and yeah, go somewhere and volunteer for a day and that kind of thing.

Nat:

So there's so many different ways in volunteering, I

Nat:

would say definitely do it.

Nat:

You're not going to regret it.

Sarah:

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Volunteering Discovery.

Sarah:

A big thank you to Barbara and Nat for joining us to talk about

Sarah:

volunteering with young tongues.

Sarah:

To find out more about Young Tongues, visit www.

Sarah:

youngtonguesglobal.

Sarah:

com or find them on Facebook or on Instagram, at Young Tongues Global.

Sarah:

Please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast.

Sarah:

It all helps people find us and spread the word about volunteering.

Sarah:

This podcast was produced for the Norfolk Waverley Integrated Care

Sarah:

System by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Sarah:

Hosted by Sarah Briggs.

Sarah:

Producer was Jules Auderson.

Sarah:

Original music composed and performed by Philip Aldred.

Sarah:

Interviews by Sarah Briggs and Jules Alderson.

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About the Podcast

Volunteering Discovery
All about volunteering in health and care
Welcome to Volunteering Discovery, where we dig into the world of health and care volunteering in Norfolk and Waveney and hear from the people that give their time to help others. We want to banish the stereotype that health and care volunteering only means making cups of tea for patients on a ward. We know that's an important role, but there are so many other activities which make a difference that you might not know about.

In the first season of this weekly podcast, we'll start our exploration into volunteering which supports people's health and care in our hospitals, our communities and our homes. From group settings to supporting families in their own homes, volunteering isn't a one size fits all activity.

By talking to volunteers and the staff who work alongside them, we'll be finding out what it's really like to be a volunteer. Volunteers will share their stories of how they got started and what keeps them coming back.

If you have ever been interested in how local people make a difference in their spare time, or what support is available in Norfolk and Waveney, this is the show for you.

About your host

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Jules Alderson