President McAleese supporting the local branch of Samaritans

The annual conference is being organised and hosted by the Causeway Branch on March 27.

Samaritans volunteers will welcome over 300 delegates from across Ireland, Wales and Spain for the event, which is being held at the Best Western Magherabuoy House Hotel.

During the course of the conference, delegates will attend various workshopw, providing them with a wide and varied choice of subjects relevant to their work as volunteerw.

Kate Miller, Regional Publicity Officer, and Deputy Director of the Causeway Branch explained: "This is a big coup for us to host the annual conference.

"Mary McAleese is a big supporter of Samaritans, and we are delighted to be welcoming her. Our Director, Geoff Whitehead, met President McAleese at the opening of a new branch in Dublin, and asked her to come along to the regional conference and she agreed.

"We have another special visitor, who is coming all the way from Spain.

"She was a former volunteer with the Causeway Branch and out there she saw the need for a Samaritans service for ex-pats and she helped to set up two branches for English speaking people in Alicante."

Kate went on: "Every year we have to raise 26,000 to keep the Causeway Branch going. None of our volunteers are paid and any money we raise here in Coleraine is used in the Causeway Branch.

"The conference has been funded separately, and without the help of local businesses we would be lost. We would like to thank the Magherabuoy Hotel, who have been brilliant, - they've even picked us as their charity for the year - Impact Printing and the people of the Coleraine area, who have been supporting us for the past 40 years, and Councils and other bodies who have supported us.

Barbara Flinn, the Conference Organiser, said: "We have three keynote speakers, Dr Mike Shooter, a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatry who is also a Samaritan Trustee, Denis Bradley, a former vice-chairman of the NI Policing Board and a co-chairman of the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland.

"Dennis was formerly a member of the NI drugs committee and is a successful journalist, who we feel will bring a lot to our conference and our volunteers, and Portrush man Ian Elliott, who will speak on child protection issues."

Barbara said that the local branch will use the conference as an opportunity to showcase their 'Listener Scheme' at Magilligan Prison, which involves serving prisoners being trained as a Samaritan volunteers, while they are incarsarated .

Barbara explains: "We were the first branch in Ireland to set up this scheme, and it has been very successful.

"It basically sees a prisoner working under the Samaritans umbrella. The 'listener' can offer a service that we can't, as they are present in the prison 24/7.

"During induction a new prisoner will be introduced to a 'listener' to make sure that if they need help they can get it. We feel that every prison should have this scheme and we are very proud to be at the forefront of it."

Geoff Whitehead, Director of Causeway Samaritan, added: "The Samaritans organisation is extremely honoured to welcome President McAleese. This is a great endorsement of the work we do and a great encouragement to our volunteers.

"Samaritans have 201 branches and is made up of approximately 18,000 volunteers throughout the UK and Ireland and this Irish Region conference is only one way that our volunteers continue to develop their listening and support skills for our callers and other voluntary and statutory groups."