Kenny Onyeka stands at the volunteer desk in the Victoria Hospital operating room lobby.
April 28, 2025
Volunteers are important members of our team at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The kindness, dedication and enthusiasm they bring to our facilities shapes the patient experience, ensuring quality service is available at every step of the way. In honour of Volunteer Week 2025, LHSC is celebrating the continued commitment of our volunteers and the impact they have throughout the hospital. Ekene (Kenny) Onyeka, Christine (Chris) Shoesmith and Mala Narine are three such volunteers whose contributions are felt across LHSC.
Kenny Onyeka stands at the volunteer desk in the Victoria Hospital operating room lobby.
Kenny Onyeka has been volunteering in the Victoria Hospital (VH) operating room (OR) waiting room since September 2023. In her role, Kenny acts as a liaison between families and care partners and staff. She provides guidance through various areas in the unit, facilitating family visits, providing status updates based on the tracking board and answering any questions to the best of her ability.
Kenny has found great fulfillment in patient interactions while volunteering.
“Even if it's just on a small scale, I always feel like I’m making a difference,” she says. “Often times in the OR Waiting Room, patients and visitors are experiencing a lot of stress or anxiety. Being able to alleviate the distress that someone is experiencing or even brighten their day by lending a helping hand is perhaps the most rewarding feeling.”
Kenny’s experience volunteering has helped strengthen skills she plans to use to pursue a career in medicine.
“Volunteering in the unit and seeing the caring interactions between all the nurses and care providers with patients has only strengthened my aspirations of working in health care,” says Kenny. “Over the last year and a half, volunteering at LHSC has helped me strengthen skills such as empathy, de-escalation, teamwork, problem-solving, and navigating difficult or sensitive subject matter. I am excited to further develop these skills and many more as I continue to support the OR!”
Chris Shoesmith stands behind the information desk in University Hospital’s main lobby.
Chris Shoesmith is entering her sixth year of volunteering at University Hospital (UH), where she is responsible for answering questions and providing directions to patients at the information desk in the front lobby.
Chris and her fellow volunteers at the information desk are often the first contact for people when they enter the hospital, which means that they often encounter individuals who are uncertain of where to go. In these situations, Chris says that a friendly approach and cheerful smile go a long way in helping people, relieving some of the anxiety they experience when coming into the hospital.
“One of our roles, as I see it, is to reassure these people and offer assistance to the best of our ability,” says Chris. “We will sometimes accompany patients to the door of the clinic appointments, especially when they are not sure whether they can follow our directions correctly.”
In addition to her role at UH, Chris is also a member of LHSC’s Hospital Champions program. In this role, she has worked closely with the Volunteer Services staff to develop and implement a huddle board for use by volunteers, which allows the team to identify and discuss opportunities for quality improvement. She has also been involved in quality improvement initiatives, including a project to address the need for a regular and constant supply of wheelchairs in the main lobby.
“I appreciate that Volunteer Services has given me the opportunity to broaden my role at UH,” says Chris. “They have recognized the skills I have and the ways I can further contribute to LHSC.”
When Chris retired from a long teaching career, she wanted to bring her time, energy and skills to the world of volunteering and felt that health care was the right fit.
“I enjoy helping people and problem solving,” says Chris. “I myself have experienced excellent care at UH and this was an opportunity to give back and help where I am able.”
Mala Narine stands inside the Children’s Hospital and Victoria Hospital Zone B gift shop.
Mala Narine has been an LHSC volunteer for 10 years and is currently a volunteer at Victoria’s Place Gift Shop in the B Zone of Children’s Hospital and Victoria Hospital. When Mala retired from her career with the library system, she knew she wanted to continue to give back to the community through volunteering.
“It took me a while to find the place that was right for me as a volunteer,” says Mala. “The first few places I volunteered just weren’t a good fit but when I started with LHSC, everything fell into place, and I have been here ever since.”
Over the years, Mala has taken on a variety of tasks in the gift shop – she is one of the smiling faces you see upon entering the shop, but her role is also essential to keeping things running smoothly. Customer service, organizing merchandise and tidying displays are important to maintaining the gift shop as a welcoming and well-managed space. In addition to these regular tasks, Mala is always available to lend a helping hand to visitors and customers. Though these are often brief moments of interaction, they are a valued part of her role as a volunteer.
During the pandemic, Mala was responsible for creating floral arrangements for the gift shop. She sourced and arranged the flowers, tapping into her creativity and love for art and design.
“I have always been a very creative, artistic person,” says Mala. “Being given the opportunity to create these arrangements allowed me to bring my skills to my role as a volunteer, which I love.”
Volunteering has long been a part of Mala’s life. Raised in a family that valued community service and giving back, she sees it as a natural extension of how she was brought up.
“I come from a whole family of volunteers, it is who we are,” says Mala. “My mother taught me that there is joy in giving without receiving and that remains an important lesson in my life.”
Kenny, Chris and Mala represent the 564 LHSC volunteers who give their time, energy and compassion to their role each day. This Volunteer Week, we celebrate the contributions of our volunteers and the lasting impressions they have on patients, families, and the rest of Team LHSC.