National Volunteers' Week will act as a focus for people who give up their time to help others in a huge variety of ways. LEWIS COWEN meets one group, whose members devote their time to helping stroke victims.

HAVING a stroke is a great leveller. It can affect people from all walks of life, occupations, ages and levels of fitness.

No one can tell when a stroke might hit them. They occur without warning and recovery from a stroke is just as uncertain.

Which is why the work of volunteers at the Stroke Association's dysphasia support service is so important to the recovery and rehabilitation of stroke victims.

Aileen Stark is the organiser of the Dysphasia Support Service in Salisbury and Kennet. She recruits and supports the small army of volunteers who work with stroke victims on specific tasks aimed at improving their communication skills. The group meets each Thursday afternoon in the Nursteed Centre in Devizes.

Mrs Stark explained: "Dysphasia is the loss of communication skills like speech, understanding, reading and writing that often occurs when a person has had a stroke in the left side of the brain.

"Our members have been referred to us by speech therapists who work with victims in hospital. They come in once a week, some of them once a fortnight, to work with volunteers on exercises designed to improve their particular handicap."

Without this vital lifeline, it is unlikely some victims would recover their ability to communicate. Many stroke victims are professional people and suddenly finding themselves unable to speak, or retain information for more than a few seconds, or write even a short sentence, can make life almost unbearable.

So Mrs Stark's volunteers must have huge reservoirs of sympathy and patience, though they also need a certain amount of steely resolve to urge their charges on to greater efforts.

Joan Hawes has been a volunteer for the group since the relative she had been caring for over a number of years died and she thought she would use the skills she had learned to help other stroke victims.

She said: "I am in my second year helping here at the Nursteed Centre.

"If you are able to talk and are a good listener, to read and write, have patience and a sense of humour, Thursday afternoons from 1.30pm to 3.30pm can be a satisfying and enjoyable time in a club-like friendly atmosphere."

Joan assists Bill Clark and Marshall Thompson, both from Devizes, who met up in hospital after suffering strokes. Marshall suffered his stroke when he was in his 30s and is slowly recovering his powers of communication.

Faye Dowse, a feisty New Zealander, has been a volunteer for the Stroke Association for 25 years.

She said: "I was an occupational therapist at St James Hospital and I used to take these kind of sessions at Urchfont village hall. Then, when the Nursteed Centre was built, we transferred here.

"Working with the people here is very rewarding. The important thing is to get on to people very quickly after their stroke."

Speed of therapy worked well for Ron Rouse, a former manager of Linpac's Devizes factory who suffered a major stroke nine years ago but, after six months of therapy with the Dysphasia group, recovered all his former abilities.

He said: "The first six months is the vital period. After that it becomes much more difficult."

Mr Rouse still visits the group once a fortnight, but only as volunteer 'catering manager,' taking round the tea and biscuits.

Bert and Pat Boniface, from Chirton, became volunteers through the suggestion of their fellow villager Lady Auriel Wheeler, herself a doughty campaigner for the Stroke Association.

Mr Boniface said: "We have been coming along for three-and-a-half years now.

"It is very satisfying work, especially when you can see improvements in the people you are working with."

The Dysphasia group is always looking for more volunteers and is taking the opportunity presented by next week's National Volunteers Week to appeal for more. Full training is given and anyone interested should phone Aileen Stark on (01722) 329053.

The National Council for Volunteering, which has organised Volunteers Week for the last 19 years, says that there are 21 million volunteers in the UK, doing everything from working in charity shops to serving as retained firefighters and special constables.