At LiveWest, we are celebrating Black History Month by sharing stories and experiences of our black colleagues and customers, recognising how black people have helped shape our history, and reflecting on how housing associations across the UK are supporting black customers.
As we recognise this important month, we spoke to one of our customers to discover her story.
Our customer Agnes Lanchbery, who is in her 70s, lives in North Tawton but moved to the UK 32 years ago from Zambia. When she first arrived in the UK, she moved in with her husband’s nephew in Okehampton, but has been a LiveWest customer since the 1990s.
While living in Okehampton, their neighbour was involved with the Salvation Army and asked Agnes if she wanted to volunteer with them. Despite being new to the country, Agnes had been involved as a volunteer before she moved, so she got stuck in with charity work here, which led her to feature in the BBC show, French and Saunders.
She has also been very active in the community of North Tawton as a volunteer and was also involved in local elections. She has some mobility issues now which impede her activities, but up until a couple of years ago she was very involved with resident engagement, taking part in a lot of focus groups.
Her passion for helping others continues today.
This is Agnes’ story.
“I was doing charity work in Africa already as I was on the Committee for the Children’s Hospital to provide lots of things. It was really interesting actually and when I came here, I got straight involved with it so I couldn’t believe I was able to do that.
“I started door to door collecting money for the charity and then because I was new, and it went so well, they asked me to give a speech where they paid me £10 which I gave to the Cancer Research charity. After I did it, I received a thank you letter from the London Salvation Army which I still have.
“From there, I went on to organising the boxes for The Children’s Society and the Blind Children and I put them everywhere across North Tawton. When I went back to collect them, you won’t believe it but there was a photo in there of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French from their show, French and Saunders.
“As a result of that, the BBC then came to film here and I don’t know how they did it or found me, I think someone had told them ‘Oh, Agnes wears a scarf’ but they approached me as I went to the post office before they closed to post a letter and a lady said ‘Are you Agnes?’ I said ‘Yes’ then she told me ‘I’m the Director of the BBC’ and I said ‘right’ and she asked if I would be happy to do it.
“I never thought I would sit with famous people, but they really wanted me to take part and I said yes, I would do it. I said all three of us should have a photo and I was the only one to have a photo with them and their autograph, so it was great fun to take part.
“I’ve done everything I needed to, it’s unbelievable. I performed in drama for three years, we went to the Royal Albert Hall in London to perform. I wanted to see the House of Commons and I’ve been there.
“I was also in contact with lots of people including our MP here and his wife. When I was canvassing for elections, I went all over North Tawton and across the community giving out leaflets, people would come and knock on my door and say they don’t usually vote here but they are going to vote for me.
“I personally have never had any racism or barriers because of my skin colour. I have a good reputation here and people speak to me, even strangers chat to me so I have had a good experience.”