For most of us, laundry is a tiresome chore, but for SPCA volunteer Lesley Marshall it’s her happy place. 

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and she’s proof that volunteering is good for your mental health, no matter the job. 

For 21 years, Lesley has turned up at the Tauranga SPCA three days a week to do endless loads of laundry for all the animals. And it’s a lot, especially in kitten season. 

Lesley’s dad got her interested in volunteering for the SPCA when he was chairman, and she really likes animals. Lesley is 61 now, and says Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays she looks forward to coming to the SPCA and getting the washing machines going with the smelly towels and blankets used to keep all the animals warm and dry. 

She says she has an intellectual disability, and says the routine work calms her mind and gives her something positive to do. It’s good for her mental health and makes her feel she’s contributing, she says. 

“I feel good in myself and can be proud of what I’m doing. I’ve always been a hard worker.” 

Her dad owned a hotel back in the UK when she was growing up and she enjoyed contributing to jobs there too. At first when she started at the SPCA she was folding boxes to take the newly adopted animals home in.  

Bethany Thomson and Lesley Marshall. Photo: Supplied.

She’s been busy in the laundry for a while now, and says she doesn’t mind the smelly towels too much. 

“Sometimes we’re really busy, sometimes not, but I get pleasure out of seeing the cells full of clean laundry and I can make sure the staff have everything they need. Sometimes I stay longer to make sure everything is done. You can’t leave smelly things lying around.” 

She loves animals and has a cat at home called Minnie “like Minnie Mouse”. Her dad only lets her have one cat at a time, but growing up there were cats and dogs and even parrots. She lives independently now in her own small house, and loves gardening, which she says she’s good at.  

Volunteer Coordinator and animal attendant Bethany Thomson says Lesley is amazingly dedicated and always positive, even when there is a great deal of laundry in kitten season. 

“She’s a person we can rely on and she’s always smiling.”