A local charity which offers a care service for the sick, handicapped or those going through stressful situations has issued an appeal for more volunteers in the north and north west of the Island.

Care in Mann wants to recruit people who can assist in a variety of ways, including driving patients to doctor and hospital appointments, or to simply help the elderly on shopping trips.

Care in Mann was established in 1988 and provides support across the Island to support existing statutory welfare services. The core activity of the charity’s volunteers is to provide practical help such as for those needing short term help.

They also provide transportation to doctors and to hospital appointments where the volunteer will, if requested and appropriate, stay with the patient during their consultation. All volunteers are paid petrol expenses for their work with the charity.

Care in Mann undertakes more than 1,000 tasks each year and has found the workload is constantly increasing. However, they are low on numbers of volunteers in some areas, particularly the north and north west of the Island.

The spokesman added, “We want to stress that the work is not onerous and anyone who can spare even just one day a month will help alleviate the situation. It has not been easy to find volunteers in the north and north west, so we are issuing an appeal, to see if there are people who might like to give up even a small amount of their time on an occasional basis.”

Anyone who feels they might be able to spare even just a small amount of their time is asked to contact Care in Mann’s normal telephone number on 628500 for an informal, no obligation brief chat.