Helen Munro spent 34 years as a district nurse, covering a patch of Inverness-shire that at its widest stretched nearly forty miles from her front door. She retired in 2021, moved to a cottage near Nairn to be closer to her grandchildren, and lasted approximately five months before she started looking for something useful to do.
“I tried the gardening. I'm not very good at the gardening.”
— Helen Munro, Vesta volunteer advocate since 2024
Helen has been a volunteer with Vibrant Health Advocates – Vesta since early 2024. She covers a loose cluster of villages to the west of Nairn — settlements where the roads narrow and the houses sit well back from the verge, where older residents are often the last ones left on a road that once held three or four working families. She visits between eight and ten people on a regular rota, with each visit typically falling every five or six weeks.
What she does, she is careful to explain, is not clinical care. "I'm not their nurse. I'm not there to assess them. I'm there to be a friendly, informed presence." The distinction matters. Helen brings health information, helps people think through questions they want to raise with their GP, and keeps a gentle eye on how people are managing. If she notices something that concerns her — a fridge that seems too empty, a confusion about medication that wasn't there on the last visit — she knows exactly what to do. But she does not arrive with a clipboard or a set of targets. She arrives with a tin of shortbread and a willingness to sit down.
“Half of what I do is just listen. These are people who have lived extraordinary lives. They've farmed this land, raised children here, seen the whole coastline change. And some of them go weeks without a meaningful conversation. If I can give them an hour where someone is genuinely interested in what they have to say, that's not nothing. That's quite a lot, actually.”
— Helen Munro
Helen's nursing background means she occasionally catches things that a non-clinical volunteer might miss. Last autumn she noticed that one of her regular contacts was describing symptoms that sounded consistent with a urinary tract infection — a condition that, in older adults, can present as confusion rather than the more recognisable physical signs. She encouraged him to contact his surgery that afternoon. He did. He was treated promptly and recovered well. His daughter later rang the Vesta team to say thank you.
For Helen, moments like that are important, but they are not the whole story. "The visits where nothing 'happens' medically — those are just as valuable. You're maintaining a connection. You're part of how someone stays tethered to the world outside their house."
Vibrant Health Advocates – Vesta is always looking for volunteers with backgrounds in health, social care, or simply a genuine interest in the wellbeing of older neighbours. You do not need clinical qualifications — you need patience, reliability, and a good pair of driving shoes. If Helen's story sounds like something you could see yourself doing, we would love to hear from you.
