'I'm not a champion but I love working in our park'

An 83-year-old who spent over a decade volunteering in his local park has been given an award by his MP.

Colin Thompson said he was introduced to Friends of Telford Town Park while at a school fair and joined up straight away.

He said the park was "an amazing place" and he was happy to support it.

Speaking about the award, he said: "You've treated me as some sort of champion and I'm really not, I've just done something that I've enjoyed doing for 10 to 15 years."

Telford's MP Shaun Davies said the town park was "the jewel in our Telford crown" and that was partly down to the work of the Friends group.

"Because of people like Colin and because of that generosity of spirit, Telford is a fantastic place," he added.

Ex-chartered surveyor Thompson also loves the town park and said: "I'm not sure that everybody recognises how lucky we are to have this."

He has been involved in arranging events in the park, but confessed: "I'm not a great gardener."

Thompson, who is also a member of the local Lions and other groups, said he had made friends for life through his volunteering.

"The great thing about this sort of thing is that you get out far more than you put in," he said.

He said the other members of the group had been very supportive when he lost his wife three years ago.

It was that loss, and his own battle with prostate cancer, which persuaded him recently to stand down from the group.

He said: "You start to look at life at that point and think should I perhaps not have spent most of my life volunteering for things and done some of the things that we had on our list?"

But he also said the hard work he had put in had been worthwhile.

"If you love doing something it's never a burden," he said.

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