27/09/2026
Thank you to Volunteer Whanganui for the wonderful work you do connecting volunteers with organisations like ours. We are grateful for your support and for the volunteers who give their time to Hospice Whanganui. Caring people like Lesley and Graeme make it possible for us to continue to care for our community.
Volunteers of the Month - Lesley and Graeme
Sandra Rickey, manager of Volunteer Whanganui, knows all too well the amazing people in Whanganui who donât hesitate to lend a helping hand. So, Sandra wasnât surprised to receive a nomination for Volunteer of the Month from Hospice for Lesley Horn and Graeme Wilson, a couple who both have the âhelping gene' in spades.
Kisu Hall, Volunteer Coordinator for Hospice, wrote,
"I am pleased to nominate Hospice Whanganuiâs volunteer gardeners, Lesley Horn and Graeme Wilson, for Volunteer of the Month.
"Since joining Hospice Whanganui in February 2019, partners Lesley and Graeme have been an invaluable part of our team. They are so thoughtful with new volunteers, warmly welcoming them and "buddying up" to help them settle in. Like many of our dedicated volunteers, their generosity extends to the wider
Whanganui community through their support of other non-profits and charities. Both are active volunteers with the Cancer Society, where they support patients with driving and companionship, alongside helping with fundraising events throughout the year.
"As a retired couple, Lesley and Graeme mostly volunteer together, enjoying the opportunity to share this experience while still maintaining their independence. Here at Hospice, they are often working separately in different parts of our gardens before going home together with their own stories to share over lunch; itâs a great balance.
"Our entire gardening team shares an incredible bond, constantly going above and beyond not just for Hospice, but for one another. The collective knowledge and experience they bring to ensuring our gardens are a place of beauty and peace is a gift to all who enjoy them; we are so grateful to all our gardeners. We wholeheartedly recommend Lesley and Graeme for Volunteer of the Month, in appreciation of their continued support, dedication, and kindness."
In response to the letter, the pair were both humbled.
Lesley, a retired nurse, says, âI finished work and decided that there's great need out there in the community.â
Together, they started volunteering for the Tawhero School Breakfast Club in 2019, and they now both make home visits to cancer patients.
Graeme, who volunteered for many years for the St Johnâs Ambulance team, taking dialysis patients to Palmerston North for treatment, now volunteers for the Cancer Society, driving patients to treatment once a week. He has completed 90 trips.
While heâs making the trips to Palmerston North, Lesley volunteers for a couple of hours at the Gonville Library.
Graeme, whose profession was hydrology, spent working hours out in the great outdoors, was a member of the Tramping Club, and started volunteering for DOC in the 1990s, clearing wilding pines and pink ragwort. Hard work that is now best left to younger people.
Besides giving a helping hand to organisations, the pair make time to maintain the gardens of a neighbour now in her 90s. It means their neighbour can still enjoy the gardens that had brought her and her late husband so much joy.
Graeme walks her dog, too.
Graeme gives a very understated and humble âwhyâ for all his volunteering: âIt gives you something to get you out of bed in the morning.â, and they have both enjoyed the friendships made along the way.
We hope Graeme and Lesley enjoy the honour of the Volunteer Month certificates and badges, and the $40 gift vouchers each, kindly donated every month by Tim Watson at Mud Ducks Café.
Lesley Horn and Graeme Wilson.
