Mary's Story

Mary worked as an office manager for a car hire company until she had to leave work due to anxiety.

Mary said that she spent a few years at home struggling to cope with her anxiety to a point that she barely went out the house. Mary would spend most days doing knitting and crocheting to pass the time.

It wasn’t until her support worker from the floating support, Ian Mellor mentioned about her volunteering with Making Space that she started to get out the house more and use her skills. Mary has been volunteering at Bridle Court and Cheshire East Floating Support for nearly 6 months as an admin assistant and befriender.

Mary said that volunteering has helped her to find a purpose and has motivated her to do things at home too. She said that, ‘I have enjoyed seeing the tenants coming out of themselves and I have come a long way too. I have enjoyed helping other people and feel that my experiences have helped me to understand what other people have been going through and with them knowing this, they have been able to open up more about their own problems seeking help where/when needed. I have found it helpful having other people around me and not feeling alone living with anxiety. I have found socialising and volunteering with other people has helped with some of my own issues too.’

Ian Mellor who is support worker with Cheshire East Floating Support service said that, ‘When I met Mary in her house, she felt very anxious to go out at all. She was a floating support client for 6 months with our service. After several months, I mentioned about volunteering with Making Space as we always need people. Mary thought about it for quite a while as she felt that she could cope with it providing she got support to start with. I brought Mary an application form over to look at and we filled it out together. She had to get her DBS through which was ok eventually. Mary wanted to get out of the house more and use her skills in an office situation. She worked as an office manager for a car hire firm and had a lot of transferable skills. Mary feels she has been able to use her skills in her volunteering role and has worked well with staff and clients. She has been mainly volunteering at Bridle Court but has also helped with the Cheshire East Floating Support Service as well. I am glad that Mary has had the opportunity to develop her skills and could hopefully get paid work eventually with Making Space.’

Gill Casey support worker at Bridle Court said, ‘Mary has been a huge help with getting the admin up to date and with supporting the tenants at Bridle Court. Tenants ask if they can speak to her when she comes in.’