A CHARITY awareness day will help people learn how to be a listening ear to those in need this summer.

Volunteers from the Southend and Basildon branches of the Samaritans are getting involved with the 24/7 Samaritans Awareness Day on Tuesday by working with the public to raise awareness around listening skills to help people reach out to those in need.

The Big Listen will see volunteers from 100 different branches across the UK hold events at 120 train stations, including Rayleigh, during the evening commute, for a marathon event nationwide.

The Samaritans are available to all to contact at any time for free, providing a vital service for people looking to reach out to a listening ear during difficult times.

Director of Southend’s Samaritans branch, Colin Hill, said: “People choose to volunteer with the Samaritans for many different reasons, but the overarching theme is that they simply want to be there for somebody who needs them.

“Anybody could get into a situation where they feel like they have nowhere else to turn, especially in the middle of the night, and so its really important that our trained volunteers are on hand to help.

“Although we can signpost people who contact us towards other services that can help them, our main focus as Samaritans is to lend a listening ear to people who need us.”

The Southend York Road site has faced problems in recent months with parking access for its many volunteers, however it is continuing to provide the invaluable service.

With 2016 NHS figures showing one in five adults had thought about taking their life at some point, the need for room to speak honestly about mental health has never been greater – a space the Samaritans aims to provide by taking more than five million calls for help each year.

As well as appearing at Rayleigh train station on Tuesday, volunteers from Southend will also join in with the festivities at Saturday’s Pride festival, and having a stand in the Southend Council foyer from 12pm to 3pm to talk about The Big Listen campaign and try to encourage more people to stop and listen to their friends and loved ones while being more open about mental wellbeing.

Eighty-three-year-old Barbara from Southend has been a volunteer at the Southend branch of the Samaritans for more than 41 years.

She said: “The work has always meant a lot to me – I believe that everybody should try to take the opportunity to help somebody and this is the way I have chosen to do so.

“There have been a lot of changes, of course, during the 40 years I have worked with the Samaritans, not just in Southend but everywhere.

“However, the problems are still the same – relationship problems, financial problems, issues from the past, and I still use the training I first received all those years ago.

“To be a Samaritan you have got to have great listening skills, but you also have to be able to listen and then leave the problems you have heard about behind when you walk out of the door at the end of your shift.

“You have to have to be able to say that the way somebody is feeling is understandable, not that you understand, because we can never know fully what somebody is going through.

“It has been a very rewarding experience, you have to hear some really difficult things but knowing you were there for somebody when they needed to speak is a great feeling.”

The work of the Samaritans is funded on an entirely charitable basis, meaning that they are always looking for financial support to accommodate more than 20,000 volunteers who are trained to help people struggling to cope.

To get involved with The Big Listen by making a donation, learning about listening, or planning your own fundraising event, visit www.samaritans.org/media-centre/big-listen.

The funds raised by the awareness day will help the Samaritans keep their services free to anybody who needs them, as well as helping to recruit, train, and support volunteers, and run local branches across the UK. To speak to somebody, call 116 123 at anytime, for free. Alternatively go to samaritans.org.