Mansfield volunteering star: ‘Lockdown has made me slow down and smell the roses’

Yvette Price-Mear has raised more than £500,000 for different causes and last year generated £3,000 for her own pet bereavement charity by playing 432 games of bingo.

But comparing a typical week of her diary in February - which involved working as a carer, collecting medical supplies for the National Police Aid Convoy, running and fundraising for her charity, giving talks, visiting the theatre and looking after her granddaughters - with the empty pages now, has made her reassess things.

"Whilst I have had the time to do soul searching I have realised that I have been giving my husband, family and friends lip service when they’ve been telling me - for many years - to slow down," said the 58-year-old.

"“Yeah, yeah,” I would say, whilst shooting off at 100 mph to my next task.

"I adore every aspect my life; it’s fulfilling and interesting and I love playing a large part in my community.

"But over the past fortnight whilst my wings have been clipped I have finally realised that my loved ones were 100 per cent right and I was 100 per cent wrong."

In 2013 she appeared on ITV’s Surprise, Surprise and was reunited with a friend from America she hadn’t seen for 28 years.

"When she left she said to me - “I hope you don’t mind me saying something but I think you ought to take more time to smell the roses.”

"Again, I agreed with her – whilst dashing off at 100 mph to my next task," said Yvette.

Despite being registered disabled with a curvature of the spine and a very painful circulatory disorder, Yvette says she has always thrown herself into everything she does with "100 per cent enthusiasm and enjoyment."

"But my word, I have got 110 per cent back out!" she added

"There are lot of people like me in every community - volunteers who relish every second of everything they do.

"I hope that they, like me, find permission at this time of an international pandemic to slow down and “smell the roses”.

"When this living hell is over I definitely won’t put my foot back to the accelerator as I always did.

"I’ve discovered that life cruising at a comfortable speed is just as fulfilling!"

Yvette's volunteering began aged 13, when she was bored in the summer holidays and her mum read about volunteering opportunities at a hospital in The Chad.

But the community carer spent the majority of her own childhood in hospital battling Perthes' disease – a condition where the top of the thigh bone loses blood supply and becomes damaged, causing groin pain, stiffness and making it difficult to walk.Yvette won ‘Inspiring Personality of the Year’ in the Chad Pride of Mansfield and Ashfield Awards in 2013, and says it takes "pride of place" in her house!