At the height of her career, Christine Drake was working for some of Britain's biggest companies on multi-million pound accounts. Two of her jobs involved creating a corporate image for pre-privatisation BT and a major relaunch of Barclays as a high street bank.
The work was always demanding and sometimes rewarding. Drake would spend most weekends and evenings working on contracts, and she earned £75,000 a year. But after more than 30 years, she felt burnt out and could not see herself having a fulfilling working life any more.
Twelve months later, she has joined the thousands of professionals who volunteer through Reach - a unique scheme which matches experts with voluntary organisations needing their expertise. In fact, she has become the scheme's record 1,000th volunteer this year.
Rather than designing corporate logos for phone boxes, or uniforms for bank staff, Drake is now helping organise fundraising events for a little-known medical charity. As events assistant for Colon Cancer Concern, she has the task of raising the profile of the charity, which aims to educate people about what is the second biggest cancer killer in Britain. She sees the challenge as no less real than building corporate identities. And she has no regrets.
Drake, 53 and self-employed for the past seven years, recalls: "I decided to take a year out from work just over a year ago. I had reached a crossroads and wondered what to do with myself. I'd had a hairy consultancy role and felt it was time to reappraise my life, look at what I was doing and why I was doing it. I spent 12 months decorating the house - and then I wanted to get out and do something constructive."
She turned to the internet for inspiration. It was while searching for voluntary organisations near her home in Fulham, west London, that she came across a link to Reach.
"I had never heard of them, but I registered and they responded very quickly," she says. "Within days they had sent 12 different job descriptions in the post. All the jobs sounded fabulous. Reach knew my background and lined up work involving project management. I looked at different projects and ended up choosing Colon Cancer Concern - which is based not far from where I live."
As a Reach volunteer, Drake joins a growing number of experienced men and women with time to spare who are offering their skills free to voluntary organisations which could not otherwise afford them. Faced with an increasingly competitive world, charities can no longer afford to be amateurish - yet neither can they afford the huge consultancy fees charged by professionals.
Help is provided by Reach, the charity which used to be known as the Retired Executives Action Clearing House. Set up 21 years ago, it at first targeted businessmen over 65. In the early years, there was just a trickle of helpers. However, changing work patterns and increased leisure time have led to an influx of volunteers, whose average age now is just 52.
People taking career breaks, redundancy or early retirement make up the bulk of the volunteer army, which, according to Reach, contributes an estimated £16m of expertise each year.
John Cresswell, a retired architect, saved a centre for the homeless tens of thousands of pounds when he modified an original £1m scheme. His design for a central tower in a roof extension at the Cardinal Hume Centre in Westminster, central London, was described as a "crucial breakthrough" by Richard Owen, chairman of the trustees. It has now been adopted by architects working on the project, which will create an extra 14 bedrooms for the hostel.
Tricia Wilson used her business experience as a management training consultant to help Gloucestershire Aids Trust secure a £135,000 lottery grant. Such long-term support has allowed the trust to provide respite care, advocacy and support groups.
Among others who have offered their time - typically, one or two days a week - are a dentist from Northamptonshire, a research scientist in Berkshire, a cardiologist based in Norwich and a police chief superintendent from Lancashire. Other professionals contacting Reach include accountants, company directors and health workers.
At 28, Sophie Chang, who is a physics graduate, is one of the youngest people involved. The data specialist decided to take a career break in the summer, but felt it would be "wasteful not to do anything".
Chang was put in touch with Age Concern Southwark, in south London, where she spent two months setting up a new computer system. "I have enjoyed it very much and learned a lot," she says. "It has opened my eyes to the fact that the elderly may need extra help in coping with something like insurance and that they prefer to do it face to face, rather than as I would - using a telephone and a credit card."
Chang, who has just started a new job, found volunteering so rewarding that she plans to keep in touch with Age Concern Southwark and to help in some way in the future.
Many others also see the world from a different perspective after volunteering.
Sue Evans, director of Reach, believes that everyone is a winner. Volunteers get the satisfaction of making a valuable contribution, without the stresses of a demanding career; the opportunity to have their experience appreciated; and the freedom to select their own working patterns and timetables. At the same time, they have the stimulation of keeping their minds active and the possibility of using volunteering as a route back into employment after a career break.
Voluntary organisations, meanwhile, get expertise they thought they could not afford and an injection of fresh ideas and perspectives. "The feedback is overwhelmingly positive," says Evans. "Everyone loves it, and just wonder why it took them so long to find out about us. We spend a lot of time on job placements, making sure we match people's skills with the expertise needed by a charity. Often there will be a choice. We want to make sure the arrangement works for everyone."
The arrangement is already working for Christine Drake and Colon Cancer Concern, who see the arrangement as a marriage of minds. For the charity, Drake's experience and dynamism will be invaluable as it raises its profile with an education campaign and fundraising events.
For her part, Drake says she has found a new sense of purpose after stepping off the work treadmill. "I am thrilled to be given such a fantastic opportunity," she says. "I know I am appreciated and can give something back to a very worthy cause."
Older, but wiser
In the last 20 years, there has been a doubling in the proportion of men aged between 50 and 65 who are not in work. In total, some 2.8m people - a third of men and women between 50 and state pension age - do not have a paid job.
With more of the workforce opting to retire earlier, the number of volunteers in their 50s is rising. Of all volunteers, the proportion aged 55- 64 has increased from 33% in 1981 to 40% in 1997, when the last national survey of volunteering was undertaken.
Although the survey did not prove as much definitively, its findings suggested that people had been increasing their volunteering in the years immediately after retirement.
These figures are backed up by findings from the 2000 British crime survey, which showed that people aged 55-65 were the most likely age group to help people once a month or more frequently.
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is one of the charities to have witnessed a striking number of people volunteering in the over-50s bracket. Of its 2,000 volunteers overseas, 17% are now aged 50-70 - compared to just 7% in 1992. Their numbers have raised the average age of the VSO volunteer to a not-so-youthful 35.
Women now outnumber men in this 50-plus group. A VSO spokesman says: "Women want to make a difference while they are still fit enough to do so and, crucially, have reached a point in their lives where they are emotionally and financially free to take a posting on the other side of the world for two years."
Alison Benjamin
Report on how to attract volunteers at SocietyGuardian.co.uk/volunteering
Reach is on 020-7582 6543, or at www.volwork.org.uk
