Allison visited the Volunteer Centre in September 2008 to see how she could get involved in the local community. At the time a series of operations left her unable to work and unsure about her future. 

Following that visit, her life has completely changed. She currently volunteers for Get Connected, a help line for young people. In the past year she has gained a teaching qualification and is training to become a sexual health teacher in schools around London.

 “I was watching The Secret Millionaire and crying – which I still do every week – and I realised that there were so many local community groups that you can give your time to. I googled volunteering and found the Volunteer Centre and caught the bus there. It was the best £1 bus fare I ever spent; it changed my life in so many ways.

I was very low, I felt I had no purpose in life and I was depressed. I was waiting for yet another operation but I knew I had to do something. There was some greater power at work that day, because I sat down in the Volunteer Centre and there was a woman sitting next to me. I’m not spiritual, I don’t believe in all that, but someone sent her that day. She overheard what I was talking about and she suggested the teenage pregnancy unit. I called them there and then and two weeks later I was getting trained.

If someone had said to me, when I was down and feeling really rubbish ‘you know what Alli, in one year’s time you are going to be teaching sex education in schools’, I would never have believed them, never in a million years. And you know what, I love it and I’m really good at it.

Surgery is preventing me from working, operations keep going wrong and getting cancelled and I am in lots of pain, but it’s ok, because I am part of something. No matter how big or how small it’s important to feel part of something; it’s good for your soul.

Without volunteering I don’t know what I would do. I still look back on think ‘God; September the 13th!’, that was the day I went to the Volunteer Centre, I remember the date because it changed my life. I was thinking the other day that I might get a tattoo of that date somewhere on my body!”