He went from volunteering once a week in the St Barnabas House kitchen to becoming an ambassador for the Chestnut Tree House charity.
Paul Goulet, from Shoreham, has worked tirelessly to support the two charities to give something back a year after he lost his wife.
His wife Sandra battled with cervical cancer for three years before sadly losing her fight in 2007.
After getting support from St Barnabas Hospice during the last few months of her life both at the hospice and while she was at home, Paul said the care and support they received from the hospice was wonderful.
This week’s local hero award winner said: “I feel privileged to be able to give something back to an organisation that has helped me so much at one of the hardest times of my life.”
Since he started volunteering and more of the hospice staff got to know Paul, he has been a cheery constant face among the fundraising events such as the 10k Coastal run and the Night to Remember midnight walk.
Paul travels around Shoreham and the local area to collect tins and gives talks to local groups about the charity.
Not only is he a front face for the charity he is always happy to do behind the scene tasks like dismantling equipment and ferrying volunteers to and from the events.
He said he receives a lot of pleasure from the time he spends supporting both hospices and has made many friends at the hospices.
Paul still does his weekly shift down at the St Barnabas kitchen on top of everything else but mainly helps at Chestnut Tree house, the children’s hospice.
He said. “Chestnut tree house is a joy to visit, it’s a place filled with laughter and happiness.”
His nominator’s say he is a joy to work with and does his very best to help the children and families that use Chestnut Tree house and St Barnabas House and always puts others before himself.
Hundreds of heroes go almost unnoticed in our local communities.
But The Argus is determined to give them the recognition they thoroughly deserve.
We have teamed up with housing repair and maintenance company Mears to launch our weekly Local Heroes Award.
We are inviting readers to nominate their candidates and tell us why they have put them forward.
Contact Kimberly Middleton on 01273 544519 or email kimberly.middleton@theargus.co.uk.
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