About BHF
Outstanding British Heart Foundation volunteer, 94, wins national honour
One of our long-standing volunteers has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Betty Webb, 94, has been recognised for charitable and voluntary services in Hereford, having volunteered in her hometown’s BHF shop for an incredible 20 years.
Known as the ‘friendly face’ of Hereford BHF, Betty has dedicated in the region of 10,000 hours as a till operator in her time with the charity.
Up until the first Covid-19 lockdown, she was one of the shop’s most regular and dependable volunteers, working up to three days a week.
When the shop re-opened after restrictions eased, she was back on the tills every Saturday and continued serving until December last year. She is now retired to focus on her health.
A committed charity volunteer, Betty also spent time volunteering with Scope and is on the committee of her local oral history group, Herefordshire Lore, helping to produce their local history magazine ‘In Our Age’.
Betty was already well-known in her home town, having manned the fruit and vegetable stall in Hereford’s Butter Market for many years. She has six daughters, 10 grand-children, and 12 great-grandchildren.
A national honour
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, our Chief Executive, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Betty’s two decades of dedicated service with the BHF has been recognised with this national honour.
"It is doubly special to see Betty honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List this Platinum Jubilee year as we celebrate wonderful volunteers across the UK.
“Volunteers like Betty are the heart of the BHF – without their passion and drive, we simply couldn’t continue raising funds for life-saving research into heart and circulatory diseases. We are immensely proud of Betty and of all our volunteers for everything they do.”
Volunteer roles with us can include customer service, telephone and logistical administration, operating tills and merchandising on the shop floor.
Behind the scenes volunteers can take on warehouse assistant or specialist roles such as furniture assembly. There are also opportunities to become volunteer stock collection drivers, stock generators and volunteer recruiters who get out in the local area.
We also offer online roles for those keen on honing their tech skills, by helping to research, photograph and list items for our online shops.