One of Shropshire’s most dedicated volunteers has received national recognition. Neil Thomas went along to meet her.
Volunteers are so often at the heart of what makes a place worth living in.
When you stop to think about it, where would any community be without those who give their time freely. They work for charities, run sports and youth organisations, provide companionship, coffee and cake at day centres for the elderly, sit on school governing bodies and church and parish councils, organise fetes and carnivals, operate food banks. The list goes on.
Also, most are unsung heroes whom the general public all too often take for granted, until the junior football club folds or the annual fete is scrapped because there’s no one to run it.
So it makes a refreshing change when deserved recognition comes their way. And in the case of Bridgnorth charity worker Margaret Yates, that acclaim is on a national scale.
The 80-year-old great grandmother, from Broseley, was one of three finalists in the Volunteer of the Year category at the UK Charity Retail Awards, widely considered the ‘Oscars’ of the charity shop world.
It is a stunning achievement when you consider that the awards are open to the 187,200 volunteers nationwide represented by the Charity Retail Association.
This is the primary organisation for charity shops in the UK. It represents a sector that generates more than £387million surplus funds a year from more than a billion pounds of turnover and its UK members run some 9,000 shops between them.
From that you can appreciate that being shortlisted for one of its nationwide awards is a big deal. It is richly-deserved recognition of Margaret’s 20 years of voluntary work and fundraising for one of the region’s leading charities, Hope House Children’s Hospice. Marg, as she is affectionately known, has been a familiar and friendly face behind the counter at the charity’s Bridgnorth shop throughout much of her two decades of unpaid service.
Marg admits she was overwhelmed to have made the final three in such a prestigious award.
“It came as a big shock,” she says with a broad smile. “I had to pinch myself. To be shortlisted from so many worthy volunteers was a shock. I was absolutely over the moon.”
Marg says Hope House is her passion. She can’t speak highly enough of the charity, which supports children with life-threatening conditions and their families.
She travels on the bus to volunteer at the shop every Thursday, and helps out with extra shifts and events whenever she can.
Marg started volunteering for Hope House shortly after retiring in the early 2000s from her job at technology giant Epson, where she had worked assembling printers and scanners at its Hortonwood plant in Telford since 1980.
“I’ve always been naturally active and when I retired I decided I wanted to do something worthwhile to help out in the local community rather than stay at home and bake cakes,” she explains.
“We were living in Woodside in Telford at the time and I volunteered to help out at a club supporting mothers and babies. Mothers would chat to me about any problems they had, I’d do my best to help and I found it very fulfilling.
“Then a friend, who was a volunteer with Hope House, suggested I come along to help out. I started at the Bridgnorth shop and I haven’t left!
“I started working in the back, sorting, and then trained on the till. Being on the till is my favourite part of the job. You get to know the customers and hear their stories. There’s such a good atmosphere in the shop. Everyone’s so friendly.
“I’m very passionate about Hope House and the amazing work it does.”
The charity supports more than 750 local families who are either caring for a terminally ill child, or whose child has died. It costs £7.5 million every year to run Hope House’s services, with the charity reliant on public support to meet 85 per cent of these costs.
Marg has visited the hospice at Morda, near Oswestry, to see at first-hand how the money she helps to raise is spent.
“It touched my heart,” she reflects. “It makes you even more passionate about the work when you know where the money raised goes.”
As well as working in the shop, Marg has raised funds for Hope House in other ways.
“I’ve done a zipwire challenge, run tombolas and been on the Hope House float at this year’s Bridgnorth Carnival.”
For her 80th birthday party she asked guests to donate money instead of buying presents.
“I don’t need anything, so I thought the children and families who use Hope House would benefit much more than me. Family and friends were very generous and I was delighted to raise £560.”
Family is at the heart of Marg’s life and they have, in turn, been very supportive of her work with Hope House. Her late husband Thomas and sons Darren and Dean have regularly helped out – indeed Thomas and Darren also took part in the afore-mentioned zipwire challenge at Zip World at Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales back in 2014, which raised around £1,500 for Hope House.
“Darren came up with the idea and it was fun, a great way to raise money.”
She and Thomas, who for much of his working life was a telephone engineer, met and married in their native Birmingham. “We were together for 59 years,” Marg reflects. His death may have left her a widow but she is far from a lonely one. Aside from Darren and Dean, she is involved in the lives of granddaughter Jessica and grandson Matthew as well as her three great-grandchildren, aged eight, six and three. Indeed, the eldest Madison, was a princess on the Hope House float at Bridgnorth Carnival.
“I have plenty of good friends too. I’m very lucky,” Marg says.
Luck probably doesn’t have much to do with it – Marg has a warm personality and an engaging smile, much of which goes to explain her popularity in the Bridgnorth shop, whose manager Mandy Hill nominated her for the Charity Retail Association volunteer award.
“Marg’s dedication over 20 years is second to none,” Mandy says. “She isn’t simply a volunteer, she’s a wonderful ambassador for Hope House and puts her heart and soul into working here. She’s understands the charity and can answer any questions from customers, whether about gifts in wills or how many shops we have.
“She has such a lovely way with everyone who comes into the shop. She is compassionate, always polite, and interested in what customers want.
“She gets involved with all our fundraising and whenever we have meetings to come up with fundraising ideas she always makes suggestions.
“I’ve been here eight years and she’s never once let me down. In fact, she’s cancelled holidays to be here. I’ve got a great team of 24 volunteers and Marg always shows leadership. On occasions when I’ve been away she’s run the shop, opening up first thing and closing at the end of the day.
“She’s absolutely amazing!”
Marg and Mandy travelled together to Harrogate Convention Centre for the awards gala dinner, attended by hundreds of retail charity workers and volunteers from across the country.
Marg was shortlisted with Clive Burke, who volunteers for Devon Air Ambulance and Myrna Philpott, who works in Tenovus Cancer Care’s shop in Cardigan, Wales.
The award was won by 89-year-old Myrna who, like Marg, has volunteered for 20 years and completed a zipwire challenge amongst much else.
“She definitely deserved to win,” Marg says with typical generosity of spirit.
Mandy adds: “The outcome didn’t really matter. Marg is an absolute winner in my eyes. We’re all very proud of her.”
If you’d like to find out more about being a volunteer at Hope House children’s hospice then visit www.hopehouse.org.uk/volunteer
