March 14th 2019

‘Samaritans’
Rev Will Adams

We all know something about the work of the Samaritans so Rev Will Adams will fill us in on what we don’t know and explain more fully about the work they do locally.

Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in distress and struggling to cope or at risk of suicide, often through their telephone helplines.

Our speaker Rev Will Adams and his fellow volunteer, Gemma came along to tell us of their work and the history orf the organisation. The Samaritans began in 1953 in London. Rev Chad Varah, upset after conducting a funeral service for a 14 year old girl who had no-one to talk to about her problems in 1935 felt he needed to do something. It demonstrated to him how confidential, non-judgemental support could help suicides.
'In an emergency, the citizen turns to the telephone and dials 999. There ought to be an emergency number for suicidal people. I thought'  said Chad Varah. 
Many years later he was offered a parish in the City of London, which gave him time to launch his '999 for the suicidal', and so Samaritans was born.

Rev Will Adams was very amusing and very interesting, mixing facts with questions to us and building up stories to demonstrate how the Samaritans work. There are approximately 22,000 volunteers across the country all with exactly the same training and skills. In 2017 there were 5.7 million calls to the service.