"I feel like I'm truly contributing to a charity I care about"

Chris Mullins, a volunteer in our Teddington shop, is one of the faces of our summer retail recruitment campaign. You can read his story below.

Chris began volunteering with us due to his congenital heart disease (a heart condition or defect that develops before a baby is born) making it difficult for him to work. Like many, Chris also experienced having a lot of time on his hands during the pandemic, and felt inspired to find new challenges, keep himself busy, and fill any gaps on his CV by volunteering.

The British Heart Foundation was Chris’s natural first choice to volunteer at, being the cause closest to his heart. With a retail background, volunteering in our Teddington shop was the perfect opportunity for Chris: he could gift his time in his area of expertise doing something he loved, whilst supporting a charity he holds dear.  

No day is the same for Chris, being kept busy with various roles across the shop, from preparing stock to serving customers at the till, and soon he’ll be trying something new: online selling and listing our goods onto eBay.

Chris highly recommends volunteering at BHF and urges anyone considering it to give it a go.   

He shares, “It was an easy online application process and the team in the shop is happy to help anyone with their application. I knew straight away that I had made the right decision to sign up to volunteer at the shop. I was made to feel so welcome.”

He continues, “Volunteering gives me such a sense of purpose: something to get out of the house for. I meet some great people and feel like I’m truly contributing to a charity I care about.”