EVERY year in Britain the Samaritans answer five million calls from people struggling with emotional problems.

In 2014, the Barrow branch alone dealt with 23,500 “contacts” – listening to people over the phone, meeting them face-to-face, and responding to emails. It roughly equates to 64 calls a day.

These people are often at breaking point, with suicidal thoughts, severe depression or in financial meltdown. A Samaritan’s role is simple – to listen.

Sarah Cooper, director of the Barrow branch which is based in Hartington Street, said: “The therapy behind what the Samaritans do is warm human contact, a non-judgmental approach, empathy and a confidential service.

“We help people to expel their feelings and emotions and reach their own conclusions.

“It’s all about the caller. We don’t talk about ourselves. It’s just completely about them.”

The charity relies on listening volunteers, 48 in Barrow, to pick up the calls – but what people often don’t realise is the rigorous process that goes into training these volunteers to listen the right way.

Typically, it takes a new trainee from start to finish nine months to be ready to handle the difficult calls on their own, covering coaching, mentoring and evaluating. The volume of calls varies across the year but can be influenced by things such as special items or reports on television, and local tragedies such as suicides.

Peter Higgins, a Samaritan volunteer, said: “When the economy took a downturn we had more calls from people with debt problems and financial problems.”

Carole Smith, a shift leader with the Samaritans, has been volunteering for more than 10 years.

Asked about why she joined, she said: “Just the satisfaction we have been there for somebody who literally has got nobody else to talk to and turn to.

“Even if they have family, sometimes they don’t feel they can talk to them about it. They can say anything to us. By offloading that is sometimes enough to make them feel better – to get things clear in their mind and work out what options they have got. We can’t advise what they should do but it sometimes helps to talk.”

Anyone interested in joining the team should visit www.samaritans.org/volunteer-us