Interview with Meg, 12th March 2026

Transcript

00:00:00 Belle

Hello, I'm Belle from Discovery. It's the 12th of March 2026 and I'm here with Meg at the Discovery 60th event.

So, Meg, could you please tell me a bit about your connection to Discovery?

00:00:11 Meg

Yeah, so I started volunteering with Discovery when I was a student at Swansea Uni. I really wanted to kind of find ways that I could explore working in different areas, you know, with children, with adults, because I was doing a degree in health and social care and I just really didn't know what I wanted to do. 

So, I started volunteering and became one of the Project Coordinators on the Rascals project, which was really, really cool. And we took children who were refugee and asylum seekers out for day trips around Swansea so that they could feel connected to the local area and that they could actually take part in stuff that other kids in their school were doing. So, it was a lot of fun, and it was the first time that I was kind of responsible for a project and making things happen and engaging with other volunteers.

And then COVID and lockdown happened, and I signed up to be a PC again and helped to develop a new project, which was the Inspire project, which was connecting with children during lockdown and dropping off like goodie bags and stuff like that.

Before volunteering with Discovery, I actually didn't know that you could work in the third sector. So, I, you know, I was looking at like social work or something like that as a job. And it sounds so, silly to not know that you could work in the third sector. But then as soon as I knew that, I was like, right, everything has changed. This is what I want to do now. I want to work with volunteers, and I want to keep doing this forever.

I became one of the student trustees and then one of the Vice President of student trustees of Discovery, which is a really cool experience of like governance in the third sector and kind of seeing like the behind the scenes of how a charity runs. And it's something that I still do today outside of Discovery, that I'm still a trustee with another organisation.

And then I couldn't believe my luck, but I got to work for Discovery after I graduated.

00:02:21 Belle

Amazing.

00:02:22 Meg

I was the project worker and my favourite part of that was getting to kind of continue working with volunteers, continue seeing projects be developed and grow, but also getting to kind of develop the one-off volunteering project and really feel like ownership over something and kind of seeing that happen. So yeah, it was the best thing I've ever done, and I credit Discovery for like everything that I've managed to achieve since.

00:02:50 Belle

Do you say you have any standout moments from volunteering or working with Discovery?

00:02:55 Meg

Okay, standout moments.

Discovery is actually where I met one of my closest friends, Maria. I remember it was during lockdown and we were getting ready for a big delivery of Inspire packs and she was one of the volunteers who supported with that. and I was collecting some of the stuff that she packed from her home, and it was probably the first time we actually saw each other in person and that really, really stuck with me and we're still friends today which I love.

And then another one was when projects came together and we run like the big end of year big party with some of the children's projects and just the absolute chaos of that was brilliant.

Yeah, those are my big ones.

00:03:43 Belle

So, if you could describe Discovery then in one word, what would that be?

00:03:50 Meg

Energising.

Anytime I do anything with Discovery, I just feel like I've come out with like loads of energy and feel all excited again. Anytime, like still today.

00:04:01 Belle

That's amazing.

Well, thank you so much for speaking with me. Thank you.