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Volunteering at RCHT
There are a wide range of volunteering opportunities at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust across all of our sites and services and to suit every interest.
If you can offer 2 to 3 hours a week, on a regular basis and are able to offer a minimum of 6 months, preferably longer, we would love to hear from you.
There are several volunteering opportunities, these include:
- Serving refreshments in outpatient areas (e.g. Headland Unit, Mermaid Centre, Sunrise Centre)
- Emergency Department volunteers
- Trelawny Main Reception volunteers
- Butterfly Companion volunteers
- Friends of RCH Coffee Bar volunteers
- Audiology volunteers
- Meaningful Activities volunteers
For further information on any of these roles and for more opportunities you can look at our Guide to Volunteering by clicking here.
You can also watch our video about volunteering at RCHT.
If you would like to become a volunteer, please apply here.
Contact details
- Phone: 01872 253737
- Email: rch-tr.VoluntaryServices@nhs.net
- Address: Voluntary Services, 1st Floor, Tower Block, Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske), Truro, TR1 3LJ
Below is some information about the different organisations and charities that we work in partnership with at RCHT.
Friends of The Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro
“We are here to make a difference.”
The Friends of RCH is a registered charity and we are a dedicated group of volunteers at the RCHT Treliske site – giving our time and support to help patients, their families and staff at our Hospital. In existence since 1945, we celebrated our 80th year in 2025.
Friends volunteers help countless numbers of patients and visitors at our Hospital every week day of the year, excluding bank holidays, generously giving thousands of hours of their time – they help with directions; they run The Friends’ dedicated Coffee Bar; they serve complimentary drinks or give support to patients in Oncology and Outpatient areas as they wait for their outpatient appointments; they take the Mobile Shop and Library to patients on the wards.
Over the years, the Friends of RCH have also fundraised to enable grants to purchase well over £1 Million worth of equipment. These have included: several specialist scanners which have improved diagnoses either at Treliske or within patients’ homes by the Acute Care at Home Team, a heart monitoring machine which has saved children having to journey to Bristol, teddy bears for children requiring MRI scans, which has reduced the need for anaesthesia significantly, toys, projectors and refurbishments within various departments, the provision of new ward refreshment trolleys for all the RCH wards in our 80th year.
The Committee of The Friends of RCH meets monthly and is responsible for the overall management of the Charity and its assets, including deciding on requested grants and allocation of monies. An Annual General Meeting (AGM) is held in the Spring of each year when we take the opportunity to thank volunteers for their many hours of dedicated service and where long serving volunteers receive service award certificates.
The current Chair is Dr Angela Mallard and all Committee Members can be contacted through our email FriendsofRCH@gmail.com; via the Voluntary Services Office on 01872 253737 or via their email rch-tr.voluntaryservices@nhs.net.
To apply for a grant from The Friends of RCH (Staff only) please send an email to FriendsofRCH@gmail.com or rch-tr.voluntaryservices@nhs.net.
For more information on the work of The Friends or how to join us and become a Friend and/or Trustee, please use the VSO contact points listed above, or visit our website on www.forch.org.uk and follow us on Social Media.
West Cornwall Hospital League of Friends, Penzance
The League of Friends is a group volunteers dedicated to supporting and promoting the work of the hospital in Penzance. We provide a twice weekly shopping trolley for patients and staff which is very popular and volunteers are keeping up the planters and garden areas which gives the hospital a cheerful appearance.
We also fund raise regularly in many ways in order to provide equipment and promote the standard of care in the hospital. Over the last 10 years we have provided almost £1million of equipment which includes the total refurbishment the Physio and Occupational Therapy Departments and many other things such as hydraulic walkers, reclining chairs, specialist lasers and equipment, fridges and much more.
At present we are trying in particular to set up the provision of more services in the hospital so that patients in West Cornwall do not have to travel to Truro as much, especially now that we have the new Outpatient Department.
You can contact the committee through the Voluntary Services Department on 01872 253737 or by calling the Friends secretary on 07849 086875 or email: wchleagueoffriends@gmail.com.
Friends of St Michael’s Hospital, Hayle
The Friends of St Michael’s support the work of the hospital by making available grants to provide additional support and comfort to staff and patients. Fundraising over the years by our members and dedicated volunteers enables the charity to support the purchase of items that fall outside core NHS budgets.
We are keen to recruit new members/Trustees and volunteers to continue the management of the Friends charitable funds as well as future fundraising.
You can contact the Friends committee/Trustees through the Voluntary Services Department by calling 01872 253737.
Community and Hospital Broadcasting Network (CHBN)
CHBN provides a Hospital Radio service to patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, West Cornwall Hospital and St. Michael’s Hospital, and in 2012 was awarded a full time Community Radio licence enabling it to broadcast 24 hours a day on FM to Truro and the surrounding areas. Listen online and 100.8 FM (Truro area only).
A key part of the service involves visiting patients to collect their music requests, then broadcasting these especially for them. We also provide on-air information and advice around the topics of health, wellbeing and lifestyle, working with services and departments within the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and the local community.
Our charity is run entirely by volunteers who undertake various roles in the organisation. These roles include presenting, visiting the patients to collect requests, programme production, engineering, fundraising and administration. We rely on outside events, advertisers, show sponsors and donations, to provide funds to continue this valuable service.
Join the team
CHBN is always seeking new volunteers of all ages to help out in this enthusiastic and rapidly developing team. You can commit as much or as little time as you feel able and will be provided with all the necessary training. So if you fancy a new challenge and would like to volunteer with our station, or would like any further information, please get in touch.
Contact
The Elizabeth Sanders Studios
Royal Cornwall Hospital
Truro, Cornwall
TR1 3LJ
01872 218418
Or visit the Community and Hospital Broadcasting Network website for more information.
Page last reviewed: 29 July 2026