A loyal volunteer has been presented with an award to recognise 25 years of giving up her time to help a charity.

No one has been helping out at Sittingbourne’s Age Concern day centre longer than Florence Lockyer.

Now 83, she started volunteering in 1987 after being made redundant from her role as a supervisor at the town’s branch of Woolworths where she had worked for 44 years.

And to mark the 25-year milestone, which she will reach in August, she was one of just two people to be presented with a glass award from Age UK.

It was handed over during an event for volunteers at the organisation’s Tavistock Square offices in London last week.

Florence, of Chalkwell Road, Sittingbourne, said: “When I was made redundant and I realised that I wasn’t going to work anymore it made me really depressed.

“My doctor suggested I did voluntary work. I went along and the staff there were lovely.

“I go twice a week and serve the teas and coffees and make bacon baps. Not only does it help me to get out and about, I can help other people, some a lot younger than me, in not such a good state of health as I am.

“All the time I can I will keep going.”