Swindon Samaritans

Samaritans is available 24 hours a day to provide confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide.

Samaritans was started in 1953 in London by a young vicar called Chad

Varah (right) who worked in the city parish of St Stephen, Walbrook in the City. Through his work in a number of different parishes in the city he had seen the range and extent of the distress experienced by people everywhere, every day. During his career he had offered counselling to his parishioners, and he increasingly wanted to do something specific to help people in distress who had no one to turn to.

The first call to the new service was made on 2nd November 1953 and this date is recognised as Samaritans' official birthday. However, in two key respects, the service did not become Samaritans as it is known today until a few months later when the term “Good Samaritans” was coined by the Daily Mirror.

Callers in need of Samaritans' service are accepted without prejudice and encouraged to talk or write about their feelings, acknowledge their emotions and explore options.

Over the years, the organisation has received millions of calls from people in distress and hundreds of thousands of people have given their time to become volunteers. Last year, they received 4.6 million calls, which were answered by 18,300 trained volunteers.

Although the Samaritans is a national organisation, they receive no funding at all and each branch has to be self-sufficient financially. Along with their running costs, the Swindon branch are trying to raise a considerable sum in order to make alterations to the building they occupy to make better use of the space - particularly to make a suitable area for meetings and training, so they don't keep incurring additional costs hiring venues. Everyone at Swindon branch, even the director, is a volunteer.

We had our presentation party on 11th February 2006. we were able to present Swindon Samaritans with a cheque for £2,000 - the proceeds from This Happy Breed.