Volunteering for The Wave Project
The Wave Project | Bristol
To be fair, 2020 wasn’t the best of years for many, in June (‘20) I was made redundant and the following week I was diagnosed with skin cancer. The words from my consultant of mortality, radio and chemotherapy scared me.
Literally in my hospital bed waiting for an operation to remove a lymph node in Oxford, I saw that The Wave Project (Bristol) were looking for surf mentor volunteers. I contacted Paul (the Bristol Wave Project coordinator at the time) and was lucky to bagsy a position to start immediately. I couldn’t wait, but first I had to undergo surgery.
For 2 weeks post surgery I had to rest and learn to walk on crutches. I could barley walk due to the 8” incision in my leg, but what I found more difficult was waiting for the call to see if the cancer had spread. As you can imagine my anxiety was through the roof not knowing what the result was going to be.
What kept me going?… Knowing I’d soon be sharing my time, experience and knowledge supporting children in surfing, through The Wave Project, how cool was that!
But not having a job for the first time in my life and waiting for that ‘result’ - I felt as if I had no purpose…
I soon found my purpose, every Tuesday afternoon heading down the M4 from Reading to Bristol. Volunteering at the Wave Project gave me a new fire in my belly. It meant so much to me at a time of insecurity and uncertainty.
Our time and how we choose to spend it is precious. It’s something money cannot buy and I’ll always be thankful of the opportunity redundancy provided for me. What better way to spend your time than by helping vulnerable children to thrive, through surf therapy.
Volunteering gave me my sense of purpose back, I met some bloody amazing volunteers who are now friends who also gave up their time for the community. Along the way I gained some new skill sets and felt that in some small way I was also giving back into the community which felt very humbling and very right.
Surfing England Adaptive Open | The Wave
My experience of volunteering was so very positive and helped me to regain a sense of purpose back in my life. if you get the opportunity, give volunteering a try… you may just find yours too (or a new one at that)!
My cancer result - fortunately it hadn’t spread. I’ve since volunteered for Surfing England at the Adaptive Open (‘21/’22). And so it seems, I have indeed been bitten by the volunteering surfing bug!!
I’m now looking forward to building a community around surfing to support mental health & wellbeing through connection with nature.
See you all in the water!
Simon Wears
