Prince of Wales visits Gloucester to celebrate 50th anniversary of city's Samartians branch
He's been a patron of the charity for over 20 years
Last updated 26th Oct 2021
The Prince of Wales has visted Gloucester to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Samaritans opening branch on the city.
He's been a patron of the charity for over 20 years.
Today he spent the morning meeting volunteers of the charity at the Gloucester branch.
During a speech as the event today , Prince Charles said:
"All I can say for what it's worth, thank you for giving up your precious time and your psychological contribution as I can imagine how emotionally wearing it must be.
"I can't tell you how proud I am to be involved with such a remarkable organisation.
"If I may say so, you are such an amazing credit to this country for what you do.
"So you are the absolute backbone of what is required in order to help so many people who otherwise aren't going to get the help that they need."
The charity supports people struggling with mental health issues who need someone to speak to.
Samaritan volunteers respond to around 10,000 calls for help every day.
Susan Raftree MBE, Gloucester and district Samaritans branch director, said: "During the pandemic we've had such a bad timewith Covid and keeping the branch open.
"We've practically kept the branch open 24/7 with people doing more than one duty a week, sometimes they've been doing three or four duties a week.
"So it was a great tonic to them the volunteers to help them with the challenging times that we've had.
"I truly believe that this has been a wonderful day for all involved".