Our volunteers

Once shortlisted you’ll be invited to an informal chat and will need to give contact details for two references. This could be an employer, community leader or friend. You’ll be invited to complete our online learning followed by a full day of training where you’ll meet your fellow volunteers-in-training! Before you start volunteering you’ll give a practice talk to a member of our team where you’ll get feedback and be signed off to give talks ‘in the wild’ (we don’t bite, promise).

Our volunteers have all been impacted by breast cancer in some way between the ages of 18 to 35. That includes:

-Personal diagnosis of breast cancer

-Genetic connection e.g. changed BRCA gene

-Breast cancer scare e.g. found a benign lump

-Preventative or risk-reducing surgery e.g. a double mastectomy

-Friend or family member diagnosed with breast cancer between the ages of 18 to 35 OR you were between the ages of 18 to 35 at the time of their diagnosis and/or treatment

You must be aged 18 or over to volunteer with us.

We strongly encourage applications from Black, and people of colour, LGBTQIA+ candidates, candidates with disabilities, from men, and from those with a lived experience of cancer because we would like to increase the representation of these groups within the charity.

We’re the UK’s only youth-focused breast cancer awareness charity, and we’re on a mission to get every 18-24 year old checking their chest. Our volunteer programmes exist to deliver near-to-peer education and our research shows that storytelling is more effective for young people when it comes from someone close in age. That’s why we have a strict age criteria for this role. We’re currently developing new volunteering opportunities for everyone to get involved in our mission so watch this space!

-Have a connection to breast cancer (see ‘who can become a volunteer’)

-Confident and/or willing to present to audiences of varying sizes

-Able to answer direct questions about your connection to breast cancer

-Good listening skills

-Proactive, seeking out opportunity to raise awareness within your role

-Organised and able to manage your time

-Able to present a serious topic in an engaging and empowering way

Volunteering is a two-way relationship. There’s lots you can get out of volunteering with us and the longer you stay, the more you’ll get out of it!

You’ll need to commit to at least one talk every 2 months – that’s 6 talks a year.

Talks are usually on weekdays (Monday – Friday), between 8.30am – 4pm. Where we don’t have many events in your area we’ll support you to reach out to local schools, colleges, youth groups and businesses to spread the chest chat!

Volunteering should be flexible and fit around your life. 

Many of our volunteers experience ongoing health challenges, including active and ongoing treatment for breast cancer. Your health and wellbeing come first. We’re committed to offering flexibility and adjustments to help make your experience with us positive and impactful. This might look like:

-Supporting last minute changes in your availability due to medical appointments and/or treatment

-Online-only volunteering

-Paying for an overnight stay to enable you to attend training where your travel is more than 3 hours or due to access needs

-Bringing your baby/child and a loved one to our offices to support you to attend a training day

Yes! You can volunteer and claim benefits. We’ll also pay back all reasonable travel costs you have through your volunteering with us – this won’t impact your claim. Check the government guidance and speak to your Jobcentre Plus to let them know that you’re volunteering.

At CoppaFeel! we support a diverse range of communities and understand that diversity within our volunteer team is central and crucial to meeting the needs of the young people we exist to serve. 

We’re committed to making volunteering as accessible and inclusive as possible and want to support people with a physical or mental health condition, mobility impairment or who are neurodiverse to volunteer with us.

We’ll try our best to adapt all roles to make them accessible and where this isn’t possible, we’ll support you in finding a role that works for you. If you think that your disability may affect the role that you are applying for then you can either let us know on your application form or reach out to our Volunteering Team.

Our volunteers tell us often how meaningful their volunteering can be. Don’t just take our word for it…

“The time someone emailed CoppaFeel! HQ to say they were diagnosed as a result of a talk. Making a difference makes a difference”.

“…I’ve been able to make sense of my own experience AND have met the most remarkable and supportive community in the process”.

“I gave a talk to a group of sixth formers and a group of young males were sitting nearby. I overheard them talking after [about] checking themselves and one was encouraging the others to check too…on first walking into the talk I expected them to misbehave…but it really hit home with them and was incredible to witness.”

– CoppaFeel! Education Speaker volunteers

The presentation covers our volunteer’s personal story, and connection to breast cancer; our founder Kris’ story, breast cancer facts and myths, the signs of breast cancer, our work, how we can remind you to start checking your chest, and guidance on how to check.

They’re usually 45 minutes but we ask you book an hour slot and encourage having time for questions at the end.

Our volunteers arrive about 30 minutes early to set up and test their tech so make sure you have a team member on hand to support with this and make our volunteer feel welcome.

We love to visit health fairs, freshers fairs, anywhere you’d like us to set up a stall to hand out awareness materials, checking reminders and join us for some chest chat!

Everyone can get breast cancer. Guys, gals and non-binary pals, that’s why we’d encourage you to book a volunteer to speak with mixed gender groups. This makes sure everyone is equipped with our potentially lifesaving message.

Our talks are designed with young people in mind. We recommend our talks for young people age 13+ and below this age, we gently encourage body awareness. We’ll take the lead from you and what you feel is appropriate for your group so get in touch if you’d like to chat.

Our talks range from more informal, smaller groups to large school or business-wide setups. Whether you’re a small group (minimum of 10) or a whole business, we’re eager to come along and share our chest-checking wisdom.

Here’s some example formats you might want to consider:

-10-15 young people at a Girlguiding or Scouts group

-30 students in a classroom or common room

-40 players in a team space or clubhouse

-50 colleagues in an open office space or factory floor

-80 colleagues joining remotely (online) from home

-100 students in an assembly or lecture hall

-300 students across three year groups over the course of the day (years 10-12)

-1000 a whole school or business, live-streamed with a member of staff joining the call from individual classrooms or offices

We visit all types of places, from prisons to stadiums so just drop us a line if you’re unsure.

If you’re booking an online talk, our Zoom account has a limit of 100 participants. If your audience is likely to exceed this amount, we’d ask that you host the session. We’re also happy to book another session for anyone who isn’t able to attend.