Heading up Hartlepool’s Poppy Appeal is a passion for NETA Training’s Sian Cameron.
Every year she commits endless hours to coordinating the sale of those all-important paper flowers across the town.
Following in her late father’s footsteps, it is something she has done for 13 appeals, as well as helping her dad for seven before that.
Now, as if that wasn’t enough, in her 20th year of involvement with the appeal, Sian has been appointed chair of the Hartlepool branch of the Royal British Legion – the first female to take the role in the town!
“I couldn’t be more delighted,” she said, who at the height of Poppy Appeal season is currently working 14-hour days and more, to ensure a seamless operation in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday.
“The work of the Royal British Legion is about helping people, and I am a big fan of that.”
While the Poppy Appeal is an annual national event, the work of the individual RBL branches goes on all year, raising funds to help support serving and ex-serving military personnel and their families in the community.
Proud to be involved, as chair, Sian now hopes to help build the Hartlepool branch and its members. She said: “People often don’t realise all that goes on in the background.”
What’s more, she is keen to point out, people don’t have to be from military families to become a branch member.
Still describing the Poppy Appeal as her “first love”, Sian regularly enlists the support of NETA staff to support the cause, working on the stalls alongside a team of dedicated Poppy Appeal volunteers.
“It is the people that you meet, both volunteers and those that speak to us when we are working on the stalls, they are the best bit for me,” she said.
With many volunteers also being RBL branch members, she added: “There are so many people that it is a joy to spend time with, as chair I will now get to catch up with everybody throughout the year.”
The Royal British Legion supports serving and ex-serving personnel of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, Royal Air Force, Reservists and their families.
Don’t forget to pick up your poppy for a small donation from NETA reception!
