AFTER 50 years of selfless work with the disabled, a volunteer has had her efforts acknowledged with an MBE.
Anne McConnell, 82, of Coopersale Common, Coopersale, has been helping out at Jubilee Lodge, and its predecessors in Grange Farm, Chigwell, almost since their very start, and said she was delighted with her new award.
“I was there not quite from the beginning , but before the trust was even formed,” she said. “A friend of mine was involved. I was in occupational therapy, and my friend said ‘this is right up your street’.
“I started by taking the guests to Grange Farm for drives in the forest and to the pub for a drink.”
Jubilee Lodge helps provide respite breaks for disabled people, and after so long working at one place, Mrs McConnell has seen a small organisation grow in size and success over the decades.
She said: “When I was first involved we just had a little water board building we rented from the council, we were open from April to October, and had no central heating in the building. From that it’s grown and now it’s a multi-million pound organisation with five centres throughout the country. It’s been really interesting to see how it’s developed.
“I don’t know what will happen when people like me aren’t here because we are not getting young people to volunteer to come and help out. I think people are more selfish and a lot of young people work.”
A previous chairman of the Friends of Jubilee Lodge, Mrs McConnell still carries out fund-raising activities for the group, and has already helped organise an upcoming coffee morning as well as a hog roast event.
She said she was motivated by the knowledge she was helping severely disabled people enjoy themselves adding: “It gives them a real new lease of life.”
She said she was “absolutely elated” to find she had been awarded the MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours’ list adding: “It came completely out of the blue.
“Of course I was delighted. I can take three people with me and I have got four children so one of them won’t make it which is a problem, but I’m very, very looking forward to collecting it.”
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