Carer of the Year: Maureen Lowe and Val de Carteret

MAUREEN LOWE and Val De Carteret have both been nominated for the Specsavers-sponsored Carer of the Year award in recognition of the time and effort they have put into organising monthly charity bingo sessions.

MAUREEN LOWE and Val De Carteret have both been nominated for the Specsavers-sponsored Carer of the Year award in recognition of the time and effort they have put into organising monthly charity bingo sessions.

Nominator Natalie Guille has known Maureen and Val for ‘about 10 years, if not more’ and described them as ‘just lovely people’.

She said: ‘The amount of work that goes into organising the charity bingos each time is massive.

‘They take their free time to organise the bingo and this is my way of thanking them.’

Maureen and Val give up their time every Wednesday morning to set up for their weekly evening bingo sessions as well as doing more work behind the scenes.

Natalie said that ‘they save up money from the club all through the year and donate the money to different charities.’

Their Christmas and Easter events have been notably popular.

‘It’s nice to raise money for well-deserving charities,’ said Maureen, who has been organising bingo for about 30 years.

‘Both older and younger people enjoy coming. We enjoy helping people in the community – it gives them somewhere to go.’

Just recently, a single session raised £965. Natalie said the events were very popular with people of various ages.