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But this still does not diminish the impact of receiving a sex call particularly when you are trained to be warm

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But this still does not diminish the impact of receiving a sex call, particularly when you are trained to be warm, welcoming and obliged to listen while "hugging down the telephone"."I have had a couple of regular callers in the past 10 years," explains a seasoned female Samaritan. "We do not think this sensitive issue is so large that it is disturbing the normal balance of what we do," explains Simon Armson, chief executive of the Samaritans, "also we do not believe this is the main reason volunteers leave - people have their own reasons for leaving."Indeed, the Samaritans have excellent volunteer training, including information about and help with dealing with sex callers, albeit quite late on in training. And as 32 per cent of all callers are silent, it is only conjecture as to what is often happening on the other end of the line, though the majority of callers are usually suicidal or in despair.Understandably, the Samaritans are very concerned about acknowledging publicly that they have sex callers, fearing it will put off potential volunteers and encourage more abusive callers. Last February, the Samaritans launched "Operation 10,000" to recruit another 10,000 volunteers, because volunteers fell by four per cent in 1996, while the volume of calls increased by five per cent. What I hated was when someone told you their story and sucked you in completely and you gave absolutely everything of yourself, only to find out that they had been masturbating all the time.

Then, I felt totally abused." Each year, the Samaritans receive around four million calls, 48 per cent of which are from men (there are two e-mail addresses now, which attract a lot of male contacts). Calls from men are on the increase, while Samaritan volunteers are still 70 per cent women. Yet, it has been revealed to the Independent on Sunday that the Samaritans receive a significant number of sex calls, mainly from men, and that this is putting off some female volunteers, possibly even making them leave. "The worst part is when you feel totally manipulated," explains one female former Samaritan of 15 years' experience.

"I could take somebody asking, 'Have you got big tits?' or saying, 'I've got a big cock', because it was not at all personal and did not invade my emotional territory. "We can't excuse what has gone on, but the mortality and incidence are dropping like stones The programme is working well but it could be better.". "What colour knickers are you wearing?" is not a question most of us would imagine putting to a Samaritan, should we ever call the 24- hour national listening service. Half of the 3,500 cases of invasive cancer occurring each year are in women who have never been screened.Julietta Patnick, co-ordinator of the national programme, says it is essential that women do not lose faith in the screening service.

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