Meet Wrekin's Festive Heroes

Meet some of the key workers who will be giving up their Christmas day this year to look after those who need support and friendship.

At Holdcroft Road, a home for people with learning and physical disabilities in Stoke-on-Trent operated by the Wrekin Housing Group, support worker Jade Machin will be pulling out all the stops to ensure residents enjoy their Christmas.

Jade said:

“This will be my third Christmas in a row, I always volunteer at Christmas. I celebrate a couple days earlier with my family. I don’t have kids where a lot of other staff do so for them it’s all about spending it with the kids and grandkids.

“At Holdcroft, everyone gets up and puts on a nice, brand-new outfit. We have a three-course meal throughout the day. We’ve got a karaoke machine coming too.

“We try and make it as special as we can. All the staff look very silly because we’re dancing around and looking like idiots.

“We have four people new this Christmas so it will be very special for them in their new home. It’s going to be a lot of partying, a lot of music and Christmas movies in the evening when they’re all tired from the amount of food I’ll be cooking!”

Over in Shropshire, Housing and Care Manager Sharon Lawrie will be sacrificing Christmas Day with her husband to look after residents at Withywood – an extra care scheme in Shrewsbury

Sharon said:

“We try to make it as exciting as possible. We’ve got a lot going on, we’re planning a Christmas quiz and generally making it quite nice because these are the people who might not have any family or friends that they can go to, so they’re their own little community here.

“We try and be a bit silly and not take ourselves too seriously. Christmas means different things to different people.

“I think it means a lot to the tenants and they do appreciate what we’re doing. We just want them to have a decent day. We’ll all be that age one day and you’d hope there will be someone there who cared.

A number of Wrekin staff will also be ensuring that residents get to enjoy their Christmas dinner on the day, including Chef Manager Ian Hobley. He will be serving dinner with all the trimmings at the newly opened Queenswood - an extra care scheme in Newport, Shropshire.

Ian said:

“For our tenants, it might the first Christmas without their family, husbands, wives. You get to make peoples Christmas day special this year. Christmas day in our industry is all about other people. We choose to do it and we enjoy it. We try and bring everyone together – we pull the tables together so no one is on their own. This will be the first big social event for Queenswood so it will be nice.”

Several Wrekin staff will also be on hand to help in the event of emergencies – including Gas Heating Engineer Lee Mothershaw. This will be second year in a row Lee will have worked on Christmas Day – having been called out on several occasions to carry out emergency repairs.

Lee said:

“I’ve been called out on a few occasions to help people over Christmas and people are genuinely grateful to see us. People are very apologetic for calling you out and they will offer you a brew and a mince pie. We’re there to help people and try to ensure that any disruption to their Christmas plans is kept to a bare minimum.

“I will miss spending Christmas Day with my family. But I know I’ll get to spend time with them over the festive period.”

22nd December 2024