Tuesday 06-11-2018 - 14:20

Durham Marrow recently won the ‘Rising Star’ award at the Marrow national conference in Nottingham, which this year celebrated 20 years of Marrow. We spoke to their Volunteers Officer Victoria Ng to find out more.

 

What does it mean to have won the award?

We won the ‘Rising Star’ award which is an acknowledgement of how much we’ve grown as a society within the last year. Last year was especially important for us as Durham Marrow transitioned from being a society stationed primarily in Stockton, to one that has expanded into the Durham campus. This proved to be difficult as Durham’s collegiate system doesn’t lend itself to a mass congregation of all students in one area. While other universities had university-wide balls in their students’ unions, a collegiate university means that students are more spread out across campus, and the places that people frequently go to are varied. We tackled these issues by holding swabbing events most weeks at every single college and being very active on the Durham Marrow Facebook page. As a result, winning the award is quite special for all of us because we had a very different set of obstacles from other universities. To be able to build up a reputation in Durham after the transition, and then to be acknowledged for it on a national scale means a lot!

 

What do you think makes Durham Marrow so special?

I think what makes us special and really sets us apart from other societies within Durham is that anyone – literally anyone at all – can be a part of something so important. Even if you’re extremely busy, you could turn up to a swabbing event, volunteer for just 30 minutes and potentially help save a life! You could turn up in the middle of the year, never having been to a swabbing, and still be a part of the Durham Marrow family. The welcoming atmosphere means that there is zero judgement and we appreciate any help that we can get. Also, at the prize presentation, we stood out amongst other Marrow groups as ‘The One with the Memes’, so that’s pretty cool.

 

What’s your favourite thing about being on the exec of Marrow society?

It would have to be the chill vibes and the friends I’ve made from the exec. Being at the National Marrow AGM with them has brought us so much closer and I genuinely enjoy working on this society. It’s so fulfilling when you get to see all the hard work you put in pay off when people get genuinely interested in volunteering and learning more about the cause. I’ve loved every second of being involved with Marrow because I know for sure that everything that I’m doing will have a definite impact on a person’s life in the future.

 

What plans do you have to keep making Durham Marrow even bigger and better?

As we’re a collegiate university, and gathering large numbers of people into a certain area is quite a difficult task, we’re thinking of collaborating with certain societies, as well as working on cloakrooms on club nights and other themed events like Valentine’s Day or Christmas. We’re also thinking of continuing the DU sports teams competition to see which teams can get the most donors signed up. Hopefully with all this we’ll break our records from last year!

 

Find out more about Durham Marrow on their Facebook page or join the group here.