EX-NI netball player so proud to become mayor of her London borough
A FORMER Northern Ireland netball player has been appointed mayor of the south London borough of Sutton.
Trish Fivey (59), originally from Co Fermanagh, has been a Liberal Democrat councillor since 2014.
She has lived in the borough for almost 40 years, bringing up her two daughters, Alexandra (30), a dentist, and Lauren (20), a final-year student in global health at Queen Mary University of London.
Trish, from Enniskillen, was the eldest daughter in a family of nine children born to late parents Dessie and Tessie Fivey.
She attended St Fanchea’s College in the town and at 17 moved to Dublin for work.
She later moved to London, where she has remained living and working.
She represented her county and Northern Ireland in netball in her teens.
Trish worked in the insurance industry for 30 years and founded a number of businesses. Betrish cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, council mayors like Trish started their year in office in unique circumstances.
They were inaugurated in a virtual meeting streamed live on the internet.
In a break with tradition, she gave her acceptance speech not in the usual mayoral chains but in a chain of office made by the children of key workers from Devonshire Primary School, in her Sutton South ward.
Each of the medallions represented a different group of key workers.
said it was an honour to serve the borough where she has lived, worked and raised her family.
Her first mayoral engagements involved showing appreciation to all key workers at the final Clap for Carers outside her local St Helier Hospital and visiting food bank volunteers.
She has chosen Sutton Mental Health and Home Start as her two mayoral charities.
She will also continue her support for the Chris Donovan Trust, which works with offenders to try and help them understand the consequences of their crimes for their victims.
“When we emerge from all of this (the pandemic), I think that we will see a lot of people suffering with mental health issues due to having been confined in their homes and the challenges in maintaining a normal family life,” she said.
“I selected these two organisations as they are carrying out vitally important work locally.
“In these extraordinary and challenging times we are living in, their work will become ever more important.”