MARGOT Small has been awarded a British Empire Medal for her work at the Burnley Wood Children’s Centre – she talks to Diane Cooke about teenage mums, her work as a Samaritan and her own difficult childhood...

Margot Small was just four years old and carrying her favourite teddy when she was sent ALONE on a flight to live with the grandparents she’d never met.

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The flight was to Holland and she was chaperoned by an air steward.

She had been sent by her mother, who had been forced to enrol on a secretarial course because of her husband’s gambling and alcohol addictions.

Margot doesn’t remember anything about that journey now, but she was brought up by her grandparents and a nanny before she was eventually sent to boarding school – “which was better than home.”

It wasn’t the most loving of environments, but one thing the family didn’t lack is money.

So when Margot, 65, left school and trained firstly as a nurse and then as a health visitor in Paddington, London, she was appalled by some of the sights she witnessed.

“I’d had a difficult childhood, but we weren’t poor. I was only 23 and I couldn’t get my head around the poverty.

“It made me very angry. I had no concept that people had no bathrooms and lived in one room. I thought everyone should have a proper space to live in. I wanted to change the world. I also understood what it was like to be parcelled around. It happened to me as a child.

“It was always a case of ‘who is going to have her this time’. When I worked with people who took drugs and alcohol I also understood their addiction too.”

Margot, who lives in Worsthorne, came to East Lancashire with her husband Godfrey when her youngest of two children was three. She had several jobs, but worked at Burnley Wood Medical Centre for 19 years as a health visitor.

When she retired she volunteered for the charity Action For Children, based at the centre which hosts 1,000 children.

In six years she has exceeded the role of volunteer. She started a group for teenage parents – 144 attended in one year.

She gives benefits advice, runs sessions on sexual health and domestic violence and has helped many youngsters with drink, drugs and domestic violence issues. In short, she’s helped a lot of kids improve their emotional wellbeing.

“There aren’t as many as there used to be thanks to education, but you still get very young girls getting pregnant. It’s a shock to the system at 16. All your mates come and see you for a week or two then the novelty wears off and they’re all down doing what 16-year-olds do and you’re left at home.

“They can get down and can’t see any future. Our long-term aim is to help them get on with education, have some self-worth and learn some life skills to progress rather than have one baby after another, which is often the case.”

Margot’s tactics are non-judgmental and honest at all times. As a health visitor, if she entered a filthy house she wasn’t afraid to address the issue.

“If I went into a house that was a tip, not just untidy, very dirty, I used to say it wasn’t OK and I’d bring some black bin bags and rubber gloves and we’d clean it up together.

“It wasn’t part of my job but sometimes when people get really down and the house gets into a complete mess, they don’t know where to start. Often they’d start clearing up because they knew I was coming. It was the incentive they needed.”

Margot also believes that teenage parents get an undeserved bad press.

“I’ve met lots of teenage mums, some are not very good parents, but then there are older mums who aren’t very good parents. But many are lovely and they’ve unfortunately got pregnant, not because they’ve been promiscuous as society likes to portray, but because they think ‘it won’t happen to me’.

“But they often make great mums. They struggle a bit when the children become toddlers, but didn’t we all? They just need a bit of guidance. They lose their youth and are frowned on. It’s not right.”

Margot is particularly proud of one of her ‘girls’ who has several children and was involved in drugs. Her parents had been in and out of prison and there was a danger of the cycle repeating.

“But I got on with her and was always honest. She goes to Action for Children. She’s done NVQs, she no longer takes drugs, she hardly drinks and she wants a job in childcare. She’s always full of beans and she’s so thrilled with herself. I’m hopeful that she will get a job.”

Margot recently had to retire from volunteering at the centre after discovering that the breast cancer she thought she’d overcome eight years ago, had returned and spread.

“I’m very positive. I have a smashing family and loads of friends. I still pop into Burnley Wood Action for Children centre.

“The cancer is being contained at the moment. It’s progressive so if I got involved in a family with a lot of issues they would need continuity of care and that wouldn’t be fair. That’s why I decided to retire.”

But this caring lady hasn’t stopped playing her part in the community. She regularly mans the phones for The Samaritans.

“A lot of people are unhappy at this time of year. Many old people who live on their own don’t speak to anyone for days.

“All they want to do is talk and tell you their life is rubbish and you listen to what they’ve done that day. People with mental health issues call us too. There are so many cutbacks and these people really struggle to talk to an appropriate person at the weekend.

“They tell us what’s wrong and we can’t do anything, but sometimes just telling us is enough. They say thank you very much and put the phone down.”

Margo still sees some of the teens she’s helped over the years and she often pops into Burnley Wood Centre for a cuppa.

One thing’s for sure, Burnley is a better place for Margot’s giant contribution.