76-year-old shop manager praised for her commitment to West Sussex charity

Jean Martin has been with Ferring-based Link to Hope since 1997 and still manages the Rustington shop at the age of 76, working five days a week in a job that she loves.

Lisa Hector, general manager, said Jean had been with the charity for a very long time and she was one of its senior shop managers.

Jean was at the Broadwater shop for a number of years, then Goring and has now been manager of the Rustington shop for eight years.

She said: "I started as a volunteer in Tarring, where the charity had its headquarters, in 1997. They offered me a job, so I took it. I love it, I absolutely love it.

"It is very diverse, when you see how things have moved on from how it first started. It used to be a bit like a jumble sale but now it has got to look nice and clean, and we do furniture, which we didn't used to do. It is about raising money and that is my main aim.

"I have a really great team of four volunteers and I couldn't do it without them. It is a real community. We also have regular customers and that is what it is about. They are very caring."

Link to Hope works with nationals in Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and the Ukraine, helping the poorest and most marginalised through education and social care.

Jean recalled: "I went to Romania to the kindergarten in Dallas Shanty Town and the children were singing 'This is the day that the Lord has made'. I can still hear it now. It broke my heart. Their little faces, I had never seen children so happy with a blow-up guitar and blow-up football.

"It was 20 years ago but that drives me on every day. I never get up and think I don't want to go in today, I can't be bothered – it drives you."

Lisa said the kindergarten was still going strong and the charity had now expanded to run 22 social care education projects. The aim is to change lives by releasing communities out of poverty.

Jean's son, Aaron Thorpe, a 53-year-old teacher living in Leeds, said he was proud of his mother for her perseverance, commitment, compassion and kindness.

Aaron added: "She is truly an inspiration, especially to those who feel that after 70, life is over or that you can't really help any more.

"She could have retired but still has the desire and will to help the people and is committed to the cause of helping others. I think in this age where people think about when they can stop work, my mum finds levels of motivation and desire to continue to help others."

Link to Hope four other charity shops, in Worthing town centre, Littlehampton, Ferring and Goring.