Student Volunteering Week: Molly

It’s Student Volunteering Week, and we’re celebrating the important role student volunteers play in helping us share the joy of live music with communities across the UK.

Molly first discovered Music in Hospitals & Care through social media while exploring a future career in music therapy. After following our work for a couple of years, she got in touch as soon as she moved to Edinburgh to start her postgraduate course at Queen Margaret University.

Since September, Molly has helped out in lots of ways, from preparing Christmas card orders and speaking to our supporters on the phone, to collecting donations at a Christmas fundraising concert and supporting the team with office tasks. She’s enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the charity works and hopes to work in the sector in the future.

One of Molly’s highlights has been experiencing some of our live music at Royal Edinburgh Mental Health Hospital as part of our Music Jam sessions in The Hive café space, where she was struck by the power of music to bring people together: “I was quite amazed at just how many patients did go up and sing. I was sort of expecting there to be some reluctance or some resistance, but it was just one after the other. You could really see some people coming so alive doing it.”

Molly encourages anyone who is thinking about volunteering to go for it: “The more you get stuck in, the more you get out of it. Don’t overthink it. Even if it’s just an hour a week, that’s still an hour you’re able to give. It all has an impact and it’s all worthwhile.”

If you are interested in volunteering with Music in Hospitals & Care, you can find out more and get in touch at mihc.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer.