Say hello to Reverend Nick Garside, Chaplaincy Volunteer at The New Selby War Memorial Hospital

Tell us about your role

As a member of the chaplaincy team, my main role is to offer pastoral support to anyone who comes into the hospital. Many of the people coming here are worried, and in emotionally stressful situations. Often, they want someone to talk to at a difficult time. It’s not important whether someone has faith or not: the most important thing is for me to listen.

There is one inpatient ward at the hospital, and when I am here, I always go to up to the ward to say hello to everyone, and to ask how they are. A patient could ask me to pray for them, and sometimes I sing hymns with them. I am also able to give Holy Communion to patients. But it’s all about offering support and comfort.

How long have you been working with the Trust, and why do you like it?

I have been volunteering here for the last 18 months. I was already a parish priest here in Selby, but I have always had an interest in chaplaincy, with experience at HM Prison Wakefield and with a housing association in Leeds.

Volunteering here is a natural continuation of that, and I feel that I am supporting the wider community in Selby, as well as patients and relatives in the hospital. The most rewarding part of my volunteering role is providing that pastoral care: feeling that I am walking alongside people, sometimes at the most difficult times of their lives.

Who is your role model at the Trust, and why?

I don’t have one role model, because everyone in the chaplaincy volunteering team plays an equally important role. We’re a small team, and the other chaplaincy volunteers do a fantastic job. Several of them have been volunteering here for many years and their dedication is exemplary.

This week is national Volunteers’ Week. Why is volunteering important?

I can only speak from a chaplaincy perspective, but it is what I am called to do. Chaplaincy is a vocation, and by providing pastoral support I can both support patients and the community of Selby as a whole. Volunteering here gives me the opportunity to continue with my chaplaincy vocation, and combining it with my role as a parish priest in Selby.