23 January 2026
Meet Ashleigh
Ashleigh has been a volunteer at Noah’s Ark for two years, most of which has been as a Home Support Volunteer. Our Home Support Volunteer programme was established in 2008 to help families cope with the demands of providing constant care, providing practical and social support to the families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.
Ashleigh is waiting to be matched with her next family and admits that there is a "hole in her soul" when she’s not actively volunteering so in the meantime, she has been supporting our Drama Therapy Team with their Sensory Stories events. These events offer an inclusive environment to all our families and provide sensory experiences that are fully adaptable to each child’s cognitive or physical needs.
Volunteering with Noah's Ark
Ashleigh appreciates the various types of volunteering that we offer, she says: "That’s one of the things I love about volunteering at Noah’s Ark, I've done lots of different things, it's great."
Ashleigh goes on to explain how she got involved with Drama Therapy: "I was asked to do some ad-hoc support with Pasha (our Drama Therapist), when she needed someone to look after a Noah’s Ark child and their sibling while mum was having therapy. Then an email went out looking for volunteers who were creative, so I immediately signed up for it. That was my first Sensory Stories, reading ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, I even had a starring role as the caterpillar! Pasha regularly tells volunteers that there are no bad ideas and that she wants us to run with our creativity. She creates such an open space for everyone to put forward their ideas."
Bringing Sensory Stories to Life
Ashleigh is now fully involved with our Sensory Stories, having completed seven events since May, including the latest, 'The Grinch' at Christmas. She is now helping to plan future events, including ‘Jonty Gentoo’. Ashleigh says: "I don’t get to be too creative in my day job, so it’s a great outlet for me. I’m involved from concept to completion and it’s so great to see the kids interacting with our ideas. Drama Therapy is so much fun; we get to really ham it up."
Ashleigh often helps Pasha narrate the story and incorporates some signs from the communications system, Makaton. She says: "I learn the Makaton signs for some of the main words in the story, so at the Halloween event, ‘Room on the Broom’, I learned the signs for dog, frog, cat and bird."
The Impact of Drama Therapy
Ashleigh sees first-hand what the children get out of the events, but she is also interested in the theory behind Drama Therapy. She says: "Pasha is always teaching me things, but I’m also learning just from watching her work. She always thinks about including every single child and all the different feelings they may have. The prime example is at the end of every Sensory Stories - we sing ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ but Pasha changes the words to include feeling sad, angry and human to acknowledge that you can’t always be happy. I think that's a really important message, that life can't be all sunshine all the time, and it probably won't be."
The Drama Therapy Team are not only inclusive of all emotions; they cater for all the different physical needs of the children who attend Sensory Stories. Ashleigh explains: "We really try to think about the children who are attending; we have children who attend regularly and others that pop in when they’re staying at The Ark, so we need to make things accessible for everyone. If a child can’t use their hands to feel the sensory elements, then we look for things that they can smell. It's really inclusive, everyone's feelings and how they interact with the sensory elements are considered, and there's no wrong thing to do."
Sensory Elements
Ashleigh goes on to explain how the sensory element of the events work in practice: "We usually set up around six sensory stations. In ‘Room on the Broom’ weather plays a big part of the story so we had cotton wool for clouds, tinfoil that they could crinkle, a drum for thunder and water spray bottles for rain. We also made mini broom sticks out of sticks, straw and twine, and we all flew our broomsticks around, which was so lovely. The events start with the sensory stations and then we lead into the story, we also decorate the space to reflect the themes of the story."
The Next Chapter for Volunteering
Ashleigh loves volunteering at Noah’s Ark and says we give volunteers amazing opportunities and room to grow, she says: "I'm allowed to be much more involved at Noah’s Ark than where I have previously volunteered. Everyone is so open to ideas, I pitched an idea to the Volunteering Team, and it could be happening in the Summer!"
Watch this space…
Find out more about our Drama and Movement Therapy or Volunteering with Noahs' Ark.
