Service with a smile

Photo: Anthony Miller

Birthday celebration . . . Annie Lees, Emily Yates, Marian Smith, 100-year-old Alice Evans and Eunice Makin.

Marian hands over the reins after party to celebrate 30 years of caring
THIRTY years of helping the housebound are being celebrated in Saddleworth.

Members of the Saddleworth Voluntary Service, formerly the WRVS, have showed their kindness and community spirit for the past three decades, with a local hero at the helm.

Marian Smith started with the Royal Women’s Voluntary Service (WRVS), delivering meals on wheels and books to isolated pensioners across Saddleworth.

Since then she has run a weekly luncheon club that has seen numbers swell from five initial members to 40.

She said: “We visited a lady in Slackcote who was quite isolated. I said what a shame it was that she never got out of the house and that’s where the idea came from.”

The Saddleworth Voluntary Service was born in 2002, when it became a registered charity, after the WRVS closed in the area.

Marian is now bowing out, handing the reins to fellow volunteer Thelma Dent.

She added: “I’m proud of what we have done, it’s a two-way thing.

“For a lot of our members this is the only time they get to go out.

“But for helpers we get companionship and the chance to meet new people.”

However numbers have dropped due to the scrapping of the social services coach service, that was used alongside Ring and Ride and private drivers to bring members to the club.

Leaders are now appealing for anyone who may feel isolated in Saddleworth to sign up to the weekly club that meets at the civic hall in Uppermill every Wednesday.

Those interested can call into the weekly meets from 10am-1pm, or inquire by calling the civic centre.