Cowplain Age Concern manager surprised with honour for supporting elderly in pandemic
Liz Wood, centre manager at Age Concern Cowplain in London Road, had a surprise visit from the mayor of Havant at lunchtime today.
Cllr Rosy Raines had been asked to present an award recognising Liz’s work supporting her clients throughout the pandemic.
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Hide AdAlong with the crystal paperweight and certificate presented to Liz in recognition of her work, cllr Raines also gave the manager a flower arrangement that she had created herself.
The mayor said that Liz does ‘amazing’ work and that she ‘thoroughly deserves’ the award.
She added: ‘It's a complete honour, a very humbling experience.
‘I understand all the work that they do here - volunteering is such a good thing to do.’
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Hide AdAs she was presented with her gifts, Liz said: ‘I couldn't do the job without our volunteers.
‘During lockdown, if it wasn't for them - the cooks in the kitchen cooking the food so that we could deliver lovely hot delicious meals - we just couldn't have done that.
‘I'd like to say a special thank you to Ron for getting the mayor to come and see me. That is really lovely.’
The visit had been organised by Ronald Brown, who regularly has lunch at Age Concern Cowplain.
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Hide AdService user Ron, who was a glassblower from the age of 14 and is now retired, said: ‘I’ve been here for four and a half years and through the lockdown we wondered what was going to happen.
‘Liz called up and asked if she could deliver hot dinners to us.
‘She did it for 29 people for three days a week for £5. We get beautiful dinners here.
‘I just thought, what could I do to say thank you.
‘She does such a good job, she works really hard.’
Liz, who leads a team of around 60 volunteers, says that she is ‘surprised but humbled’ to receive the award.
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Hide AdShe added: ‘I've never really had an award for anything so it's just lovely to think that one of the service users put me forward.
‘It was really lovely and made me feel very appreciated.’