A tribute to heroes for charities
SERVICES TO CHARITY:
DENISE Cobbett is so dedicated to raising money for Kirkwood Hospice she even set up her own support group which has raised more than £90,000.
The hospice has cared for her relatives and friends so Denise – known as Dee – has been fundraising for it for 30 years, starting with the support group coffee mornings in 1990 before joining the Dalton Support Group where she quickly showed a real drive for fundraising using her initiative, creativity and determination.
In 2012 she set up her own support group and with selflessness, hard work and dedication has built up a team of volunteers who help her with the never-ending fundraising and ongoing support for Kirkwood.
Dee has done everything she can think of to raise money, from tombolas, raffles, distributing and collecting tins to promoting the hospice’s weekly lottery and even selling chocolate oranges disguised as knitted festive puddings at Christmas – or crème eggs transformed into bunnies, chicken or little crocheted baskets at Easter.
In 2017 when Kirkwood opened a new café in Denby Dale, Dee volunteered to manage it and ran it successfully with help from her support group members for six months before a permanent manager was appointed.
In January 2019 Kirkwood introduced a new line in scratch cards and these are Dee’s new mission, even selling them when she’s away on holiday.
Dee wanted to help the hospice because her brother-in-law, Alan Powell from Kirkheaton, spent two weeks in Kirkwood Hospice after it first opened 1987.
She said: “My auntie, Nellie Wood, passed away in Kirkwood and a few close friends spent their final days in
Kirkwood. That’s why I decided to raise money for them.”
Dee, who is now in her 70s and lives in Dalton, is married to Michael and the couple have one son, Nigel.
Kirkwood Hospice volunteer and fundraiser Julia Owen said: “Dee has made a measurable impact for Kirkwood over the last 30 years as volunteer, a support group leader, a mentor and a role model. It’s hard to put into words the passion that Dee has for supporting Kirkwood.”
HILARY Livingstone wanted to help a charity when she retired … and she ended up managing one, and completely turning another round after it was in danger of folding.
Hilary’s mother, Peggy Read, was a trained Samaritan and a founding volunteer at Huddersfield Hospital Radio and inspired her daughter into charity work. Hilary’s first voluntary role was in the late 1970s when she chaired the Holmfirth committee of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
She brought up her family and had a busy working life which started with the Department of Employment in West Yorkshire, eventually ending up in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. When she mentioned to a colleague that she’d like to help a military charity when she retired, he suggested being a caseworker for the Soldiers Sailors Airmen’s Association (SSAFA).
She began as a caseworker in 2013 but is now the SSAFA West Yorkshire branch secretary, managing more than 30 caseworkers who help veterans in need after falling on hard times. Everything she does for SSAFA is voluntary.
Hilary was a church warden for Hepworth Church in the Holme Valley up to the late 1990s, the first woman in the history of the church to carry out this role.
Since 2016 Hilary has been a trustee of the Eleanor Hirst Trust which owns six Grade II listed Almshouses in Wilshaw near Holmfirth. When she joined, the trust was in a precarious financial position and the almshouses were in a poor state of repair.
Hilary took immediate action, made the trust viable again and a programme of restoration and renovation has now been completed with invaluable help from new trustee Dan Bamforth.
Hilary, 70, of Wilshaw, has two daughters and two grandchildren and is married to Ian.
Dan, also of Wilshaw, said: “Hilary is simply the most wonderful, kind, caring and considerate person. Despite being ‘retired’ she is most definitely anything but, putting the needs of others first always.
“I am immensely lucky and privileged to work alongside Hilary at the Almshouses charity. She is such an inspiration to myself and others. If there were more people like her, the world would be a better place. She is not one for spotlight or praise but I can assure you that she is most deserving person I know.”