Ken Mason
A volunteering veteran - 39 years of volunteering
I volunteered at the second Crisis at Christmas back in 1973. I was probably in my 30s. I've done around 35 Christmas events in 20 different locations.
I'm retired now and volunteer for Crisis throughout the year. I stopped volunteering in the Christmas centres and do more in the office. I do a lot of work for the fundraising team, stuffing envelopes, writing addresses, all of that. I've been doing this for ten years. I can't do the lifting like I used to.
I have a lot of memories from over the years. Things you could never make up. I remember one year when we were running out of food. Crisis got in touch with LBC radio who made an announcement that we needed people to donate food! And people did. We ran around London collecting vegetables and turkeys!
You could never predict what was going to happen and where you would be from one minute to the next. I remember we had these turkeys that weren't cooked and we had to send them to the London fire brigade and they cooked them for us! And we took the Christmas puddings over the river to St Thomas' Hospital and they cooked them for us. You had all these volunteers carrying puddings over the bridge with people looking at you and wondering what was going on!
If anyone is thinking of volunteering, you must do it, you're helping someone and one day, it could be you in that position. It's a world that people never see - this world of chaos and fun to be had and help to be given.