After taking early retirement, that’s exactly what she did and has since immersed herself as a volunteer in the charity’s great work in the town. Her role as director means she has a duty to ensure volunteers are trained to the highest standards and also has a role, along with the management committee, in securing the future of the building, to fundraise and help publicise the work of The Samaritans.

”It’s extremely rewarding and very worthwhile work. It does tend to be very busy during the night, a time traditionally when people are at their darkest with no-one to turn to. Today we get calls about a whole host of issues, ranging from relationship problems to bullying, debt worries to sexuality issues,”she said.

Volunteers working for The Samaritans in Huddersfield are asked to give between 15 and 20 hours a month which works out on average at one shift per fortnight. Remember the service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“After 54 years it’s easy to assume that everyone knows about the work of The Samaritans but we still need to make people aware of its services to all areas of our community. Young men in particular are still a very high risk group suffering from isolation and despair, and today there are new areas of concern such as bullying in schools, self-harm, family breakdowns etc.” she said.

”Traditionally women are still better at sharing their problems and feelings which sometimes helps to explain why men find the only way is to open up to an anonymous voice at the end of a telephone.

“In Huddersfield we have a large Asian community. For traditional cultural reasons issues tend to be kept within the family. Today however there are a number of third generation young people with issues and we need to make them aware of The Samaritans as well.”

Sheila said: “The strength of The Samaritans is that our volunteers have the ability to listen. This listening skill is hugely underrated and our volunteers have to spend six months learning how to listen. The aim of a listening volunteer is to ‘come alongside’ the caller and offer empathy and a real understanding of the callers despair or dilemma.

”Completely confidential and anonymous, volunteers find sometimes callers just need to talk through a situation. Although we don’t offer a solution, we can ask about how callers feel about certain situations and put them in touch with specialist organisations such as debt counselling, family support, bereavement counselling etc.

”Sometimes sadly people do feel the only way out of their situation is to end their life. For some people this is their only choice and we have to accept their right to determine their own future. Often we just have to listen to callers and then allow them to put things into perspective once they have more information about the options open to them.”

People who volunteer for The Samaritans are from all areas and walks of life and range from age 18 to 80. There is a recruitment telephone line available for anyone who is interested in becoming a volunteer.

Sheila says one of the main growth areas with callers to The Samaritans is the increasing situation of out-of-control personal debt which sees individuals getting into terrible financial difficulties and not being able to see a way forward.

Britain’s personal debt is said to be increasing by over 1million every four minutes little wonder then that so many people are in difficulties. Average consumer borrowing via credit cards, finance deals, overdrafts and personal loans continues to rise year after year.