Volunteer Stories - Danny

Volunteers' Week 2026

My name’s Danny and I’m a volunteer Civilian Instructor with the RAF Air Cadets, as well as a Digital Content Coordinator for my union.

I haven’t been volunteering long. The process of joining the Air Cadets has taken a while and there’s still a lot of training ahead of me, but I’ll officially begin working with the cadets at the start of next month. In the meantime, I’ve already started helping my union, which is entirely volunteer run.

I decided to begin volunteering because I’d become frustrated trying to find some level of personal fulfillment through work alone. I wanted to find something meaningful where the skills and experience I already had could genuinely help other people, while still fitting around a fairly disruptive work roster.

A friend suggested the Air Cadets might be something I’d enjoy, so I found a local squadron and started the process of joining. It hasn’t been straightforward, but I’m really looking forward to being a positive influence in young people’s lives and hopefully helping them work towards their ambitions.

At the same time, my union needed someone to manage digital content, maintain the website, and support day-to-day communications. It can be time consuming, but I’ve enjoyed seeing the impact it has on member participation and engagement. It feels good to contribute something meaningful for my colleagues at work.

Volunteering has also pushed me to learn new skills, sharpen old ones I hadn’t used in years, and challenge myself again after feeling fairly checked out at work for quite a long time.

What worked for me was talking to people about volunteering and finding roles that suited my life and needed something I could offer beyond just my time. Although time itself is incredibly valuable, and even giving that can make a real difference to other people.