What would you give up to help people in distress – time, money, your marriage?
For the volunteers who have worked tirelessly in the Jungle camp in Calais, that question is not an intangible abstract but a real issue.
Helen, who asked that her surname not be included, is 28. She works in a residential care home for young people and children in south Wales, where she lives with her two young children, and has been volunteering in the camp for the past year – a year in which her life has changed completely.
She has spent thousands of pounds volunteering in Calais – all completely self-funded.
But it was at home that her voluntary work exacted a heavier toll.
She married her husband eight years ago and they had two children together, but they could not agree about her work in Calais.
Helen said her relationship was already struggling, but this disagreement “put the final nail in the coffin” and she divorced him.
“The impact of volunteering has been massive,” she said.
“There have been times when I have put Calais before everything, before my children, before my work, before my family. And this has a knock-on effect on everyday living.
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