Volunteering: the perks are free

Most charities working in sensitive areas will interview and train their volunteers to prepare them for some of the more difficult aspects of the work they’ll be doing. Similarly, anyone who volunteers to work with children will be subjected to police checks to protect the children they’ll be working with.

Ask her why she does it, and Joanna laughs. ‘To save the world’ is her answer. ‘I don’t think I’m going to get the Nobel Peace Prize, but I figure I can reach whatever ripe old age I reach, and I’ll be able to know that I did my part and made a difference.’

Dot Jeffcott, 48, from Warwickshire is another person who really gets a kick out of volunteering. ‘Personally, I’ve always liked small mammals – mice, shrews, voles but, especially, bats. I knew that bats didn’t suck blood and all that rubbish and I liked watching them, but it wasn’t until a bat got stuck in my house that I realised what I could do.’

Dot is a member of her local bat group and, along with her husband, is one of the hundreds of volunteers who are entirely responsible for monitoring bat populations in the UK. If it weren’t for volunteers, this valuable work wouldn’t be done. As for the personal benefits, Dot is in absolutely no doubt. ‘People laugh when I say I used to be afraid of small spaces, spooked in the dark and scared of heights, but still I volunteered to be a bat watcher,’ she giggles. ‘It’s crazy but this weekend I’ll be climbing up high ladders to check roosting boxes. I’ve even stepped out on narrow joists in cramped ceilings. All because I thought that if I might see some bat droppings, it would definitely be worth it.’ If this sounds like your cup of tea, contact the Bat Conservation Trust, or see the next page for other ideas.