The Remarkable Margaret Dixon

Today we mark the passing of a remarkable lady and a fellow Trustee, Margaret Dixon, who has given so many years of service to our charity and to older people in our community.

I have been trying to establish exactly how many years Margaret had been a Trustee and prior to that volunteered for us. I think it is at least 30 years or more. Companies House records the date of her appointment as 2006 but I know her involvement started many years before that date. Our own records show her as a trustee at least as far back as the year 2000.

In 1995 Age Concern Worcester, as we then were, opened the Triangle Club together with the YMCA and Aging Well. Margaret was responsible for setting up and organising the club which provided friendship and a regular hot meal to any lonely older person in the community. She ran it for 24 years until sadly it closed in 2019, due to the sale of the YMCA building. Margaret said at the time that some of the people who came to the final lunch had been with her for all of those 24 years.

She did not just give her time to Age UK. She was also committed to her local churches and helped with the many activities they organised, she helped with the church magazine and various committees and coffee mornings. Still helping in recent weeks even though she herself was not well enough to attend.

There are many older people, in the St John's area of Worcester in particular, who will know her name and will have benefitted from her friendship and her commitment to community life. The aims and objectives that Age UK strive to achieve for older people in Worcester and Malvern Hills were certainly embodied in Margaret’s work for her local community.

Myself, Clare our CEO, all of my fellow trustees and all of the staff at Age UK Worcester & Malvern Hills, respect her and send gratitude for so many years of dedication to the development and progress of our charity. Rest in peace Margaret, with best wishes to all her family and friends.

Hazel Sherwood.