We are delighted to bring you our third story for National Volunteering Week. This truly exemplifies this year’s theme of “Building Community Together” and is a wonderfully motivating story.

Here is Lucy’s story

My name is Lucy or Luíseach. I struggled a lot with my mental health from when I was fairly young, although I didn’t really understand it then. I eventually went to the HSE for help, after my leaving cert, in 2023. I had thought help was impossible at that point and was just doing what I thought I was supposed to do, not out of any true hope or belief in the system. They were lovely and very supportive, and I slowly started to reintegrate into life.

I did a couple of group therapies that were offered, and I really loved the climbing related one – we would spend one hour talking and one hour climbing. After it finished we could attend the Climbing High Group (it’s based in the Dublin Climbing Centre, for anyone who attends the local mental health services). I loved the climbing aspect of the group and still do the climbing today. It had really helped me when I was struggling, more because there were tangible goals and it felt very simple, but also made me feel like I could accomplish things, which helped a lot with confidence. I also really enjoyed the group for the people, to have friendly faces that I could have a chat with every Monday.

I now volunteer for Troy Mental Health Association (based in Dalkey) every Friday in Troy Club, where there’s pool, table tennis, and a place to sit down and chat with the other members and volunteers. It’s a lovely community and a good place to socialise with people who have been through similar things and will be supportive. It’s my way of giving back to society, which really helped me at one time and that I’d like to pay forward.

I think it’s really important at this moment in time to care for others and talk to people outside of our own social bubble. The news feels very depressing and everything seems to be in the tone of reactionary populist far-right nonsense, which tends to ostracise people who are different, who are also most likely the people we are volunteering to help. I think community is incredibly important when everything seems too big and difficult to process (news-wise). Helping a small group of people is a tangible way to help in general rather than to stress about everything that we can’t do anything about. I think it helps to combat the feelings of hopelessness and shows us that we can make our own corner of the world brighter, no matter how dark the news can make life seem.