But Echuca Regional Health could not run without them.
Here is the story of some of the ERH volunteers.
VIDEO: Julie Simpson and Mike Porter share their story
YOU could say 93-year-old Mike Porter and buddy Julie Simpson are an unlikely pair.
They seem more like father and daughter than a volunteering team.
But when it comes to serving at Echuca Regional Health, the two have been inseparable.“We’ve been together four years, Mike and I,” Julie smiles.
“We do everything in the hospital together. I'm like his daughter, you might say.”
Mike adds: “It’s quite a partnership.”Julie started volunteering several years ago when her friend suggested she come along to the Senior Advisory Group (SAG) meetings for the hospital.
“Now it's grown, I'm in the kiosk, on the trolley with Mike and the SAG committee,” she said.
Initially helping by washing cars, Mike transitioned to volunteering on the wards when he injured his shoulder.
“I asked if there was something else I could do,” he said.
“I was told they’d been thinking of taking a trolley of sweets and newspapers around the wards. At that point I had met Julie, and she said, 'Oh gee, it would be good if we could work together'.”
Their wish came true, and the dynamic duo haven’t stopped since.Mike said their role was much more than just selling items from a trolley.
Instead, the pair hope to provide much-needed human connection and conversation to patients.
“We don't push the sales. We're not here to sell chocolates and papers and stuff. They're more of an intro into each ward so we can talk to people,” he said.
Some are more keen to talk than others.
“I walked into a ward one day and said to an elderly gentleman, 'Hey, how's it going'. The man said, 'Oh. What do you want?’
“I said, 'Just a chat, I thought you might like to say hello'. And he was surprised and said, 'Oh. That's a good idea, isn't it. You've come around just to say hello?' And I said, 'Yeah'.
“So for a chap who wasn't going to talk at all, we enjoyed chatting for about 10 minutes.”
Sadly, Julie said she and Mike were sometimes the only visitors patients received.
“It makes you a bit sad, poor things,” she said.
“But their families are too far away and are often tied up on the farms. So if they get sick, they really only have the visitors from the hospital, like us, to cheer them up.”
But she said the satisfaction from volunteering was often overwhelming.
“I like the feeling that maybe I've brightened their day,” she said.
As for Mike: “I'm only a couple weeks off 94 and I'll go for as long as I can go”.
“I couldn't bear to just be home every day,” he said.
“I just can't understand people who sit home and say, 'Oh I'm bored, I've got nothing to do'. There's a lot you can do. Get out and volunteer.”