Tadley woman recognised for selfless community work

Careworker lauded for all she does for Tadley and Baughurst

A SELFLESS Tadley care worker has been recognised for all her hard work for the community with a Good Citizen award.

Nicole Larkin was nominated for the award for her work in setting up the Tadley and Baughurst Facebook page pre-coronavirus, using it to share information important to the people of Tadley.

She then used the page during the pandemic to help residents access and share information, as well as promote local community groups.

Ms Larkin also volunteers for her local church, St Paul’s.

The award was presented by Tadley Town Council and its chairwoman Jo Page said people like Ms Larkin were invaluable to communities.

She said: “I don’t think a community could exist without people like Nicole.

“She’s very quiet, very much in the background and was totally shocked when we turned up on her doorstep.

“She couldn’t understand why anyone would put her forward – she thinks she hadn’t done anything more than anybody else.

“Without people like Nicole in the background quietly working, the situation in villages would be an awful lot worse.

“You need people like Nicole to support residents in any way they can to make life that tiny bit easier.”

Ms Larkin, who is a support worker at SeeAbility’s Heather House in Tadley, said she was stunned when the councillor turned up at her door.

She said: “I didn’t know what to say.

“I volunteer at the church and we do something once a month called Messy Church and we were trying to promote it happening and I realised there wasn’t anything online to promote these events.

“I set up the community Facebook group, it got popular really quickly and it went from there.

“It’s really important because there’s a lot of wrong in the world, so it’s important to get the positive things out there, like sharing local events and good news.

“It was a little bit of positivity.

“The group has been really important since the pandemic started – there was a huge influx of people joining the group, and you could definitely sense there was a lot of anxiety so I thought it was useful to have.

“Just little things like knowing when Sainsbury’s was open.”