I am writing my first blog entry after completing my first week of work at Congregation working in the Marquee! It was exhausting (I slept most of the weekend to recover) but I had a fantastic week working with our team.

We began with two initial training sessions which included familiarising ourselves with the Durham University Merchandise. We learnt about the significance of the Durham University Merchandise. To do this we carried out exercises which allowed us to discuss the specific qualities of each product.  In our training it became clear that there was a dispute over which was the favourite bear. Personally, I favoured Buster although Toffee was extremely popular at Graduation selling out on Friday! I was impressed by the amount of gifts and keepsakes available for students and families to purchase at Congregation. The range of local products such as Durham Gin and the Rail Prints Durham proved very popular at Graduations with students especially favouring the gin as a present for graduating.

Once we began work at Congregation I was amazed by the atmosphere in the Marquee, it was full of students and families celebrating. Working in such a great atmosphere was a pleasure as you felt part of ... read more

What a day today has been. Today I have been at a full day voluntary day as part of the ILM3 course. We were visited by Paul Marriott, CEO of St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham, a fantastic charity which offers care and support to those suffering from a terminal illness. Paul started off by giving us a brief introduction to the work of the charity. This in itself was really insightful and inspiring, to hear about the work people do to at the hospice, after all, as Paul said, ‘it’s not about adding days to the life it’s about adding life to the days’.

With this thought provoking statement in mind we were all feeling motivated to take on the challenge that Paul had lined up for us. The hospice is planning to hold a conference to discuss palliative care in September, aimed at GPs, care home workers and carers looking after family members. Paul had talked about how difficult it often was to reach all these different groups and to get them to take time out of their busy schedule to attend. He left us with a basic programme and asked if we could come up with a flyer and ideas about ... read more