ALMOST 20 per cent of the staff working at the Conquest are volunteers -from pharmacy staff to the chaplaincy - and the department is overseen by assistant voluntary services managers Anne Knight and Robert White.

Most of the volunteers carry out a minimum of three hours per week, and range in age from 16 to 80.

DJ Terry has been broadcasting on the Conquest hospital radio for the last six years, working with a team of 40 other volunteers.

He has had a career in BBC and commercial radio, and worked for music companies where his most famous client was the band Genesis - as well as singer Shirley Bassey, but he is not so keen on admitting that.

Click on the green audio button to listen to Julia's broadcast interview.

"We broadcast 24 hours a day," Terry said. "There are about 800 beds at the hospital and radio is a very intimate form of communication. We try to do this with a hint of humour.

"The criteria is that it's informative, interesting and entertaining for the patients."

One of Terry's coups was informing patients about the Norovirus over the winter.

He said: "We did interviews with the infection control team.

"We'd been telling patients not to bring in relatives if they were ill, and about two weeks later the national story broke, and several hospital wards closed - but we didn't."

Terry values the late night listeners the most. He said: "After 8pm it quietens down, but some people are too ill to sleep. We put on comedy shows, a very diverse output. This sort of people don't really have a chance to do anything else."

During the daytime at the hospital, most visitors will come across the volunteers on the helpdesk, including Judy, 63, and Liz, 66.

Both had had experience of the hospital before they signed up as volunteers, and wanted to give something back.

Liz, from St Leonards, said: "People are so grateful to see a friendly face when they come in here, without having to search for somebody."

Judy, from Bexhill, said: "Sometimes people come along and they are a bit irate, and we use our skills to diffuse the situation."

Despite being on the front line, the pair have never had any trouble from visitors.

"I sometimes go home, and my husband says have you had a nice time, and I say: 'Yes, I've had fun'," Judy said.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the hospital is asked to call the voluntary services department on 01424 755255 ext 8496.