Happy Volunteer’s Week 2026

Niamh Adams, Volunteer Coordinator and Leah Saywell, Volunteer

Hello, I’m Niamh, the Volunteer Coordinator here at the Florence Nightingale Museum.

My role is to organise and create opportunities for our volunteers, to ensure they can utilise or learn skills that are beneficial to the museum and to themselves.

We have such a small permanent team of staff at FNM, which can mean we can sometimes be a little stretched to achieve some of the great things we do. Our volunteers never back away from getting stuck in and are therefore vital to the work we do, and the experience our visitors have.

As the first week in June is Volunteers Week, we wanted to take some time to celebrate and thank our volunteers for all their hard work and commitment. We wanted to showcase all of what they do to keep the museum an insightful, interactive and fun space, where they bring our collection to life.

Volunteers have a variety of roles from helping with school visits to leading tours and object handling sessions to name a few. No two days at the museum are the same, meaning there is always something to get stuck into or to learn.

But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself by reading what Leah, one of our volunteers has to say:

Please introduce yourself?

I’m Leah, and I am currently studying a history foundation year at university.

The moment I decided I want to become a volunteer at the Florence Nightingale museum was when I got invited to the recruitment day where potential volunteers learn about the available roles within volunteering as well as the policies in volunteering itself. I wanted to become a volunteer at the FNM because ever since studying history GCSE I have taken an interest in the history of medicine, especially Florence Nightingale, a woman who will always inspire me because it fascinates me how she made nursing the respected profession it is today. If it wasn’t for Florence we wouldn’t have clean and tidy hospitals that we see today, as well as having professional nurses.

When I found out that I was going to be a volunteer at the museum I was delighted to the point I was in shock and I couldn’t wait to get started. Before I officially started volunteering, I had an induction day which was an opportunity to get to know more about my volunteering role, after that day I knew I made the right decision about volunteering here

Tell us a little about your role as a volunteer?

My volunteering job can vary depending on how busy the museum is. Usually on a day I volunteer I start with tidying up areas within the exhibition space such as making sure everything within the dressing up area is correctly and neatly in place. Once I have completed tidying objects in the museum I manage object handling for a few hours. This has to be one of my favourite jobs as I get to talk about objects that were used in the Crimea War and the Victorian era. Some of my favourite objects to talk about are the Turkish Fanoos Lamp, scrubbing brush and Windsor soap, Pestle and Mortar as well as the clear blue glass bottle.

What do you enjoy most about your role as a volunteer?

Within these four months of volunteering, I’ve realised that I have gotten more confident about speaking to and communicating with visitors once I’ve done object handling a few times, the more I volunteer, the more I learn that engaging with the visitors at the museum isn’t as bad as you imagine. One of the things that makes volunteering at the FNM feel rather special to me is the chance to handle objects that aren’t meant to be touched by the public. I’m incredibly grateful that I’m a volunteer at this museum, I feel extremely lucky to be invited to events that are specifically only for staff and volunteers. One special moment I’ll never forget is when I got invited to an exhibition opening at the museum about the nurse Catherine Pine. I knew I had to say yes to this opportunity and go to an event that was not open to the public because I never knew if an opportunity as interesting as this would ever happen again. It felt surreal to see the suffragette medal before it was placed on the exhibition display because I think of Florence as one of the original feminist heroes.

For anyone who is considering becoming a volunteer, I would say go for it, volunteering isn’t just about helping, it’s about developing and learning new skills, I wished I volunteered at the Florence Nightingale museum sooner. Volunteering is a place where I have not only gained confidence, but it has also helped me develop as a person and I feel valued as a volunteer. I hope that eventually I will be able to step out of my comfort zone and give other roles a go and one day have an official job placement such as the curator of a museum.