Charidy, mate

Last Friday (the 16th of March) was Comic Relief Day (The Big One), and our place of work was full of the usual money raising events for this worthwhile charity. Usually Warbreck House's phone helplines are given over to Comic Relief for the night in order to take donations, and this year was no different. Celia decided that she'd like to volunteer to man the phones for some of the night, and this year I said I'd join her in some capacity. I wasn't sure what I would do, whether it would be dishing out food and drinks for the volunteers or strapping on a headset and taking donations.

As it was, we both spent three and a half hours taking credit card numbers etc over the phone from the brilliant British public, calling from diverse locations as far up as the Highlands, from Northern Ireland, all the way across to Norfolk. I was especially impressed by the generosity shown; every little bit counted, from the one caller giving £250, to the Dad who rang on behalf of his little girl who wanted to donate £10 of her pocket money.

Never doubt the power of television. Following one film on the night showing how a simple mosquito net could save a child's life, there was a surge in telephone calls donating money, some callers becoming quite emotional because of this.

I wasn't sure whether I could do this sort of thing, not being familiar with the set up and never having used the headset before, but by the end of my stint, I was buzzing. I was amazed at the high you get from doing this, and after a slow start, I was ploughing through the calls quite happily, exchanging banter with the callers and having a good laugh. It really felt good to be helping make a difference, and I know Celia felt the same.

Big shout out here to all those who helped, supplying water, grub and helping out when the inevitable technical difficulties occurred. Also it was strange to be sat opposite our boss, Chief Executive Terry Moran (below) who was also giving up time that night to help on calls!

In the end, our call centre took £110,854.83 in donations on the night from a total of 3919 call. I personally took £1160.00 (an average of £48.33 per call) from 24 callers on the night. Not bad for a first try!! Old hand Celia did even better, taking £1260.00 (£40.65 average over 31 calls)!!

We got back home at just after 10.30 to watch the rest of the night's entertainment, and cracked open a beer and scoffed a Domino's pizza. Well deserved we thought! Here's to the next one!