It’s such an honour to say thank you to the tens-of-thousands of people in the UK who took part in this year’s CSV Make a Difference Day at the end of October.

Although we are still doing the number crunching, it looks like we’ve beaten the 70,000 who took past last year to strengthen communities and tackle loneliness and isolation.

Activities were both large and small, from baking chocolate cakes for homeless people and writing letters of encouragement to young people in hospital, through to creating sensory gardens for children and helping older people to go online to keep in touch with loved ones.

I spent a day icing gingerbread men, drawing pictures and making bird homes with young children as part of the current European Year of the Volunteer.

Elsewhere more than 100 MPs showed support, many inspiring volunteers in their own constituencies or volunteering at local charity shops.

If you’ve caught the volunteering bug and want to continue benefiting others, then there are lots of other ideas for people of all ages to volunteer all year round at: csv.org.uk/ difference. Hopefully we’ll be welcoming you to the 17th Make a Difference Day next year!

ESTHER RANTZEN CBE, CSV Make a Difference Day, Pentonville Road, London