North East

Laura Lowther

Regional Representative (North East)

Laura is Head of Volunteering at St Oswald’s Hospice and is responsible for the strategic leadership of volunteering across the organisation as well as leading her development and coordination team. Starting out in the charity sector nearly 15 years ago, she was quickly drawn to the world of volunteering (although dabbled with HR for a while!) and remains passionate about its potential to transform individuals, organisations and communities. Her current area of focus is around organisational strategy to guide St Oswald’s Hospice’s volunteering culture into the future. Another area of recent development has been around Clinical Volunteering – involving volunteers safely, meaningfully and strategically in patient care, alongside clinical staff. She was incredibly proud to co-develop a collaborative, agile and ambitious volunteering project throughout the pandemic with the specialist Lymphoedema Service at St Oswald’s Hospice, which won Hospice UK’s ‘Innovation in Care’ award in 2021.

Laura is also a Trustee with VODA North Tyneside (Voluntary Organisations Development Agency) who provide support, advice and training to local organisations, acts as a volunteer centre and runs a variety of partnership projects. She is currently working with the CEO on a People Advisory Group to develop organisational approach to ‘people and culture’.

Laura has been a member and regional rep for North East HVMN group since early 2020 and has found the supportive and generous spirit of the group throughout the pandemic a source of inspiration and has been delighted to join the HVMN Executive Committee in February 2022. A great believer in the power of volunteering within Hospices, she is excited to explore and expand the potential of HVMN as a network and how it’s members and partners can all collaborate to shape its future and embed innovation and inclusion at its heart.