Our stories

This World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September), we spoke to Maggie McDonald about her experience volunteering with Samaritans and why listening can make such a difference. Maggie, a Diabetes Specialist Nurse at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has been volunteering with Samaritans for the past 10 years.

As World Suicide Prevention Day approaches, many of us may wonder what we can do to support someone who is struggling. The answer may be simpler than we think: start a conversation.

Bernadette, Yoga Practitioner in CAMHS, shares her thoughts on the physical and mental benefits of Yoga in adults and children.

As students up and down the country wait in anticipation for their GCSE and A-level results, Specialist Community Public Health Nursing Student, Jo shares her story of continuing education beyond school, and how different learning opportunities have helped to shape her career journey so far.

Co-production and equitable care are central to building a more effective, inclusive NHS. Together, they move healthcare beyond traditional models - where services are designed for people - towards a partnership approach, where services are designed with them. This means every voice matters, and every experience counts.

If someone had told me years ago that I would one day become a Co-production Lead, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. Not because I didn’t care about people’s voices being heard - quite the opposite.

Being an ex-soldier, volunteering with Sea Cadets was never something I planned - until it was. Once I joined, it felt like something that just kept growing on me. It has allowed me to use my skills and develop them further, giving me opportunities I never knew existed.

Esther Cafés have become a small but powerful part of how we learn, listen, and grow as a team. They provide a welcoming space for the people who use our service, their families, and our staff, to come together as equals and speak openly about their experiences.

I recently visited an old friend. We first met in 1984 at a youth camp. She was one of the leaders and I, a volunteer, supported the activities she had designed. Now, she is entering the last days of her life at the grand age of ninety-five.

For International Nurses Day (Tuesday, 12 May 2026), Becky shares how she changed careers at 50 from teaching into learning disability nursing on the Isle of Wight, and why it is never too late to follow a new path.