I always wished to have more contact with patients as my wife spent a little bit of time at Hospice having group therapy and activities before she passed away with breast cancer. On her last days it's just unfortunate the hospice didn’t have a place for her, so I always wanted to in some way be involved with patients because my wife missed the opportunity.

It makes me feel a lot better by helping patients because I don't have any clinical ability but being ward helper asking them what they would like for breakfast or for lunch and be able to serve them, change their water, makes me feel joyful from the inside that I make my little contribution towards the hospice.

The hospice has a lot to offer, especially hospice in the home, it opens up the service to a lot more people. Minority communities hardly know it from my own experience, they never heard of the Hospice and also they're quite private in their own culture and tradition, it's for them to care for their elderly and for the sick.

 But the thing is that the Hospice offers a lot more than that; they offer a lot of help and to give the ill the best life they can have in the time they have and it's something that should be available for everyone, not only for people who know about Hospice. So it's in my other role that's what we try to do, to actually pass that information on to as many people as possible, especially those who have very few contact with Hospice. 

For my own experience, being inside the hospice and knowing how everybody works, it's that much easier to pass that information on. It's easy to read from a leaflet, but it's nothing to replace the actual experience, and I do encourage people from different minority to actually come in to volunteer with the hospice, to get to know more and pass it on from your own experience, because if know about it, you can describe it the best you can.

We just hope that more people can have the hospice experience, and in particular when hospice in the home is available that allows you best of both worlds in that you can be at home with the nearest and closest and also have the support of the hospice as well.

In a way the experience of my wife and also the stage of cancer care that she went through, although she passed away, I’m able to volunteer, I feel that I can actually have a sense of empathy with the patient and able to offer comfort if necessary, and also how to support other people at an early stage of cancer, at least I can guide them through the stage if they want my help. As I've been a volunteer with the hospice, then I am able to do signposting and say this is where help comes from in the language that they can appreciate.

My wife passed away in August 2015. Since then, I was able to interpret for a Chinese elderly lady who had bowel cancer and I found that experience is quite rewarding as well because when I went through with my wife, it would help her through chemo. She and I had a nice rapport because of the fact that I'm able to actually to explain to her the stages ahead in a way that's that actually from experience rather than read from a script or from literature.

By doing that, I feel that my wife is with me in passing that information on. So she passed away, but at least in a way, not in vain, in a way that her memory lives on to help other people.

From my own experience, I would say do volunteer because by working here you can see how other people like yourself volunteer and you realise their motive is pretty similar to yours. Especially from minority communities, your experience should help to actually signpost and to help other people to get to know the hospice and also in conjunction with your own cultural needs, together we can help whoever will come for our help in the future, in a way that's suitable for their community and their cultural needs.