Peter Malone – Tallaght Red Cross

Today is the last day of National Volunteering Week and our final day of bringing you our amazing stories of volunteers who helped keep our country connected during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Peter Malone is a volunteer with the Tallaght Branch of the Irish Red Cross and brings us a very touching story of how he helped out during the pandemic.

My name is Peter Malone and I have been a volunteer with the Tallaght Branch of the Irish Red Cross for 9 years now, and I am currently the Unit Officer for my sins!. In my time as a volunteer, most of what I do is help provide medical cover for local Community events. We could have 20-30 such events per year as well as 10-15 South County Dublin events, all of which are a very important financial resource for our Branch. But this year has been different, and more rewarding on a personal / Community level.

When the Pandemic hit, no one realised how important our non medical Community work would be!! We had a great team of volunteers at our
disposal, led by example by our intrepid Community Support Officer, and had built up great relationships with several local Charities. I was furloughed from work fairly early on in the Pandemic, which allowed me to get really involved in supporting our Community during this most difficult time.

Initially, we spent time in the Community connecting with the local people, letting them know that we were there for them if required, and doing leaflet drops in relation to how to cope with the stress and isolation of this period in time. We offered help to the vulnerable and self isolating people of our Community, with shopping collections and prescription deliveries. Sometimes it was just to be a voice on the end of the phone line for people. We did social welfare checks on people and helped point them in the direction of the appropriate resources. We were out and about 6 days a week and it was great to be able to interact with the local people. I live in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow and there was quite a few times that I would have received a phone call from a Pharmacy in Tallaght, asking if I could drop some prescription off to people who were either self isolating or cocooning. Now, this is a 70km round trip for me to do this and a few times I would have received 3 such phone calls, in the same day……a daily
combined round trip of 210km. But do you know what?? Not once did I ever consider it a burden, in fact I considered it a blessing to be able to help those who needed it most.

One of my regular prescription drops was to an elderly gentleman who lived alone. His wife passed several years previously and his children were living overseas. He said to me, on one of my visits, that I was the only person he had seen in 4 months as he was afraid to go out!!! That was the defining moment of this Pandemic for me……..I suddenly realised that what I / we were doing ( though trivial in my mind) was making such a difference to this gentleman’s life…….to be able to have that effect in a person’s life is such a rewarding feeling, and is why I will continue to be of service to my Community.

Be safe people.