Gillian Belt made lifelong friendships in more than two decades serving tea and coffee on the ward at East Cheshire Hospice.
Her first contact came when her late father Alvin Thomas was admitted as a cancer patient in 1998.
Gillian said: “Dad came to live with us from our family home in Wales and spent two weeks as an inpatient at the Hospice.
“That’s how I got involved and I kept that link. After I started volunteering, I got to know families and still keep in touch with some.
Volunteer Betty Malkin with her woollen goodies.
“Sometimes I’d go in to see them even when not on duty because they were on their own.
“At first it was hard to go in after losing my dad, but once I went through those doors, I knew I had to put a happy face on.
“Even if I felt down, I had to smile. One patient said, ‘here she comes, the girl who has always got a smile.’”
Gillian has also made gift cards and is a long-standing member of the Macclesfield support group.
Fellow member Betty Malkin spends hours each day knitting once her housework is out of the way.
Betty makes cute woollen items, including bears, and sells them to raise Hospice funds.
She said: “It’s therapy for me. I have arthritis in my hands and find that knitting helps.”