A helping hand

It’s not just NHS patients, their families and staff who benefit when people in the community help out. It’s rewarding for the volunteers too

Sharon Thomas on the appeal of local shows, an ill-timed back flip, the joyful chaos of entertaining children – and smuggled dogs

Volunteer week starts on 2 June so Yours spoke to three women who have transformed their own lives through the healing power of giving

Dog lover Karen Hardcastle trains puppies to help deaf people

Tubby little bundles of joy, guide-dog puppies may be irresistibly sweet, but they’ve been expertly engineered to perform life-changing duties, discovers Katy Birchall

The latest wellbeing trend from Norway is about giving back to the community – here, writer Katy Moon spends the week putting volunteering to the test…