Volunteers at Burnley park pay glowing tribute to one of their helpers as a 'major asset'

The praise for Billie-Jean Horne came from the Friends of Ightenhill Park which this year celebrates its 15th anniversary.

Billie-Jean is the Community Champion at Burnley's Tesco store, a role she took on five years ago, and since then she has been passionate about working with local groups and charities.

Ida Carmichael, who is secretary of the Friends of Ightenhill Park, said: "“Billie-Jean has been a major asset to our cause.

" No job is too big or small for her and she is always keen to help support the group in whatever way she can.

"“The donations and funding we have received from Tesco have been extremely important to the group, and we wouldn’t be where we are now without them."

The friends group first approached Tesco for help with various projects in 2015 and Billie-Jean visited the group to find out about the work it does in the park.

She said: "I always try to visit and get involved with the group for a while so I can better understand their needs as a charity or initiative, which helps ensure we support them best we can.

“I began helping out each week with the Ightenhill ‘Grot Grabbers’ in 2015 and I haven’t looked back since.

"I still love meeting with them once a week to help support our local area through litter picking, or grot-grabbing as we call it, bee keeping, gardening, as well as general maintenance of public areas.

"This is all to ensure that we have a pleasant and safe space for our community.”

Alongside volunteering for the group, Billie-Jean also makes regular donations of items on behalf of the Tesco Extra in Burnley. The store frequently provides bags of sugar to the bee-keeping arm of the group, as well as gardening supplies such as seeds and buckets.

The group applied for a Tesco Bags of Help grant in 2017, an initiative set up in 2015 to help support worthy local community groups. It secured funding and in 2018 used the grant to invest in a communal polytunnel, encouraging local people to get involved with growing fresh produce.