A Tribute To Our Dear Colleague Helen Beggs

Everyone in Volunteer Now is deeply saddened at the recent passing of our dear friend and colleague Helen Beggs.  Helen worked for Volunteer Now for 16 years, spending all that time within the Our Duty to Care Team.  Many of you will know that Helen’s area of work focused on keeping children and adults safe, helping hundreds of organisations and individuals over the years to improve their safeguarding practice.  Helen was always at hand to answer their queries and share her expertise.  She developed and delivered countless training sessions throughout Ireland, including our train the trainer courses which she led on in recent years.  Helen took her work extremely seriously and was very passionate about it.  It was clear that she wanted to make a difference.  Helen worked so hard, was professional at all times and she was highly regarded by all who knew her.  She was an amazing trainer, organisations often requesting that she would be the trainer to deliver their course.  She really enjoyed the train the trainer courses and helped so many individuals to learn and achieve their accreditation.

Volunteer Now, the Belfast Trust Keeping Safe Initiative and South Eastern Trust Keeping Safe Initiative have received so many messages from trainers commenting on how supportive Helen was to them, and how nothing was too much trouble for her.  And we all know that she loved a laugh and was very witty, making the courses enjoyable even though the topic was a sensitive one.

Many an afternoon she would be heading out of the office with her batch of training packs for the next day, looking forward to meeting another group of participants, and thinking about what the session might bring.  She loved to be organised and as a result was always well prepared, often having a ‘back up plan’ in case anything went wrong.  Helen really enjoyed being a trainer, she loved being out and about meeting new people, and learning new things that she could bring back and share with the team.  She made such a contribution to Volunteer Now and was a real team player, always stepping forward to help when she could.  Helen also volunteered for many of our volunteering campaigns and events, with one of the most recent being the meeter and greeter role in the vaccination centres.  There is no doubt that those going along would have felt reassured by her warm smile and calm presence.  She had so much to offer.

Helen was very fair – she didn’t like injustice of any kind and was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in.  This was very inspiring. Helen made such an impact on those she worked with.

Helen developed many friendships in Volunteer Now, she regularly checked in on people and asked how their loved ones were doing.  At times she would have asked how their pets were doing too!  She loved animals.  She was extremely kind and was a great listener, always interested to hear what people had to say.  We loved hearing all of Helen’s stories too.  It was very clear that she was immensely proud of her family, she talked about them all the time.  We enjoyed hearing all about their adventures.  We loved hearing about her dogs too – the best looked after dogs in the country!

Helen will be sadly missed by everyone who knew her.  We feel very privileged to have had Helen as a friend and a colleague.  We will miss her smile, miss her chats, and miss the laughs but when we think of her, we will have fond memories.  She touched so many lives and her legacy will live on.  Rest in Peace Helen.

We are keeping Helen’s family in our thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time.