Belfast-born May Blood was awarded an MBE in 1999 for her work as a trade unionist and indefatigable volunteer in her community. Her achievements were also recognised by Queen's University, who awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Baroness Blood is a firm believer in older people sharing their talents and skills with their communities in a voluntary capacity.

"I believe that everybody has a talent. The trick is to find the volunteering opportunity that will best use that talent," she says. "If you enjoy what you're doing, you'll stay doing it and get a lot from it. But the opportunities are not going to come looking for you - you'll have to find them for yourself. You may even have to start with something that doesn't sound very interesting, but you never know where it may lead. If you have the energy and the wish to do something then my advice is to get stuck in - age has nothing to do with it," says the energetic 63-year-old.

Volunteering takes many shapes and forms and there are opportunities which will suit the amount of time you have available, as well as jobs for all tastes and experience. For example, good listeners would be welcomed by organisations such as the Senior Helpline, while those who are adept at dealing with detailed information would be invaluable as advisors in one of the network of 80 Citizen Advice Centres dotted around the country.

There are always openings for those willing to help with fundraising or to work in charity shops, while those retired from business could participate in the Mentor Programme run by Enterprise Ireland, which matches businesspeople with young and start-up companies who would benefit from an experienced hand to guide them. Those good with their hands could share their skills and stimulate creative activity at day centres, active retirement groups and with children on summer projects, while there are also always openings for those willing to help adults with literacy difficulties.

If you're fit, adventurous and willing to travel, APSO - the Agency for Personal Services Overseas - has a range of overseas volunteering opportunities for retired or semi-retired people with management, professional or technical experience. The agency began recruiting older people about 10 years ago and Donal MacDonald, head of the organisation's short-term assignments section, says it has been a very successful approach.

"We were ageist when we started off in that we were looking for people with experience and that generally goes with age," he says. "The average age of those working with us now is 50 upwards. Of course we are happy to take younger people for short-term assignments and we find that in the IT area in particular it tends to be younger people who have the skills we need.

"But we still tend to go actively after people coming up to retirement and have targeted companies such as Guinness and CRH which have retirement planning for their employees. We've been delighted with the corporate response and it means we get very experienced, high-calibre people, which is fantastic for the projects concerned. We don't pay those who go on assignments for us - though there is a small allowance and all those who go abroad must have a certificate of fitness from their doctor.

"The assignments are located all over the world and we would have people in places such as Bosnia, Tanzania, Senegal, Belize, Peru and Uganda working on assignments in education, engineering, accountancy and marketing. We also have people on medical assignments and people working as facilitators, financial advisors and counsellors.

"The countries we work with are very happy to have APSO personnel because they do their job and go. They don't come with any agenda or baggage. We encourage people who've been abroad to keep in touch with their project and there is often another visit at a later date. We find that many of those who volunteer have really blossomed doing this work and some people have been away with APSO five or six times," says MacDonald.

The United Nations has designated 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers and as part of its contribution to the year, Age & Opportunity, the national organisation which promotes the participation of older people in society, has produced a leaflet on volunteering opportunities. Copies of the leaflet are available from Age & Opportunity, Marino Institute of Education, Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9. Telephone (01) 805 7709. The contact number for APSO is (01) 661 4411.