Selfless Tadley residents honoured with 'Good Citizen' award for work at Age Concern

TWO selfless Tadley citizens have been given an award for their work in running an Age Concern lunch club in the town.

Vicky and Alan Braseby have been running the club since 2017 as a way of giving back to the community, meeting every Tuesday at the Ambrose Allen Centre to provide the local elderly with a two-course meal and a place to socialise.

And on a lunch club meeting on Tuesday in front of dozens of Tadley residents, the pair were honoured for their work with a ‘Good Citizen’ award from Tadley Town Council after a nomination by Age Concern chairman Linda Mead.

Mrs Braseby – who first started volunteering for the charity in 2008 after moving from Calcot – admitted that the award had made her cry.

She said: “To get an award for something we love doing, it’s amazing.

“It doesn’t feel like work, it’s a pleasure. It feels like our family.

“It made me cry – we get so much pleasure from this.

“When we first moved here we didn’t know anybody and I felt I needed to know people, but now when I go to Sainsbury’s to do my shopping it takes ages because we know everybody.

“People keep saying: ‘You’re the one who does the lunch club aren’t you?’”

Mrs Braseby paid tribute to her team of volunteers, saying “we couldn’t do it without them”.

One of the guests at the lunch club was Doug Horsley.

Mr Horsley, who’s been going to the club for around six years, said it was invaluable after lockdowns, and the Brasebys had done wonders for it.

He said: “The club is so important because there are a lot of us that live alone, including me.

“Some of us have lost partners, including me.

“It’s important that we can meet people in the same circumstances and get strength from that.

“With some of us, bereavement has become less of a burden, and we can share that burden.

“The club brings us together socially, which we always enjoyed before the lockdowns, and the work that Vicky and Alan have put into that and encouraged it and they’ve taken it to a point where we’re pleased to be coming back all the time.”

The award was presented by Tadley Town Council chairman Avril Burdett, who said it was an opportunity for the council to say thank you on behalf of the community.

She said: “They’re the volunteers that make everything happen because without the volunteers there would be so much missing from Tadley.

“So much goodness would be lost.

“They do such a great job and often you don’t even know about it because they do so much in the background, so it’s nice to say to somebody you do such a good job and we really appreciate it.

“It’s not just about what’s happening here today, it’s all the support they gave through Covid.

“The shopping and the phone calls. Alan has become known as Mr Fix It.”